Nature, Nurture, and ’Ndividuality
The field of psychology is under a spell of believing that the person is merely a product of nature and nurture. This belief holds that the individual person plays no causal role in their own development. This belief assumes that epiphenomena (like persons, which originate from nature and nurture) lack real agency and cannot be a cause of themselves at a later time, so personal growth and the transformative self are illusions. This chapter explains the faulty logic in such beliefs and presents the nature, nurture, and ‘ndividuality model of personhood, which holds that the individuality of the whole person influences that person’s own development in ways not explained by nature, nurture, or their interaction. This model relies not on notions of free will or even intentionality but rather on another model of the person as a self-organizing system—a dynamic, organismic system within a pluralistic ecology of systems.