Living Between Two Worlds: Intrapersonal Conflicts Among Igbo Seminarians - An Enquiry

559 Pages·2003·2.07 MB·English

by  Chika Justin Uzor

Living Between Two
Worlds: Intrapersonal
Conflicts among Igbo
Seminarians - An Enquiry
CHIKA JUSTIN UZOR
Peter Lang
LIVINGBETWEEN
TWO WORLDS
This page intentionally left blank
CHIKA JUSTIN UZOR
LIVINGBETWEEN
TWO WORLDS
INTRAPERSONAL CONFLICTS
AMONG IGBO SEMINARIANS–
AN ENQUIRY
PETER LANG
Bern • Berlin • Bruxelles • Frankfurt am Main • New York • Oxford • Wien
Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Bibliothek
Die Deutsche Bibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche National-
bibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available on the Internet at
‹http://dnb.ddb.de›.
British Library and Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data:
A catalogue record for this book is available from The British Library,
Great Britain, and from The Library of Congress, USA
Cover design: Thomas Jaberg, Peter Lang AG
ISBN 3-03910-028-9
US-ISBN 0-8204-6264-0
© Peter Lang AG, European Academic Publishers, Bern 2003
Hochfeldstrasse 32, Postfach 746, CH-3000 Bern 9, Switzerland
To my late parents
Anieke Matthias and Olunwa Patricia
for the seed of faith
to
Michael U. Eneja, Bishop Emeritus, Enugu Diocese
for the fatherly trust
and
to All
who believe in the unconditional Value and Dignity of the human person
and who stand up against all forms of gender and racial discrimination
This page intentionally left blank
T ABLE OF CONTENT

A cknowledgment 17
F oreword 19

PART ONE: THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE 23

1. CLEARING THE GROUND 25

1.1 Why this Topic? 25
1.1.1 Sociological Indication 26
1.1.2 Theological Indication 26
1.1.3 Psychological Indication 28
1.2 The Aim of the Study 30
1.2.1 The Seminarian: An “Other-Worldly” Being 30
1.2.2 The Seminarian: An “Inner-Worldly” Being 36
1.2.3 The Seminarian: The Epicentre of Attention 39
1.3 Method 43
1.3.1 Our Anthropological Slant 44
1.3.1.1 The Seminarian: A Man Between two Worlds 46
1.3.1.2 The Human Person as an Organism 50
1.4 Definition of Terms 54
1.4.1 Igbo 54
1.4.2 Seminarian 54
1.4.3 Worlds 55
1.4.4 Conflict 55
1.4.4.1 Definitions of conflict 56
1.4.4.2 Conflict as a Quality of a Relationship 59
1.4.4.3 Contents of Conflict 60
1.4.4.4 A Definition of Conflict 61
1.4.5 Intrapersonal Conflict 62
7
1.4.6 Culture 62
1.4.6.1 Definitions of Culture 64
1.4.6.2 Culture as a Metasystemic Unity 66
1.4.6.3 A Definition of Culture 67
1.5 Summary 68

2. TRADITIONAL APPROACH TO INTRAPERSONAL
CONFLICT 71

2.1 Motive-oriented Approach 71
2.1.1 Conflict and Motive 71
2.1.2 Motive 72
2.1.2.1 Motive – Attitude 76
2.1.2.2 Motive – Attitude – Value 77
2.2 Characteristics of Motivational Processes 77
2.3 Conflict and Motive: The Regulating Principles 79
2.3.1 The Mechanistic Principle 79
2.3.2 The Homoeostatic Principle 80
2.3.3 The Pleasure Principle – Hedonism 81
2.4 Summary 83

3. A SYSTEM ORIENTED APPROACH 85

3.1 A Brief History 85
3.2 How do we know what we know? 86
3.3 The Human Person acts motu proprio 89
3.3.1 Theory of Personal Constructs 91
3.3.1.1 Personal Construct – Choice – Time 92
3.3.1.2 Personal Construct – Conflict – Neurosis 95
3.4 Relevance of this Approach 98
3.5 Summary 101

8
4 . INTRAPERSONAL CONFLICT AND EPISTEMIC
FRAMEWORK 105

4.1 Intrapersonal Conflict in three Perspectives 106
4.1.1 Etiological Perspective 106
4.1.2 Operational Perspective 110
4.1.2.1 TOTE Model 110
4.1.2.2 The Difference that makes a Difference 112
4.1.2.3 Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose 116
4.1.3 Experiential Perspective 126
4.2 Summary 132

PART TWO: AFRICAN EPISTEMIC SYSTEM OF
REFERENCE 135

5. THE AFRICAN WORLD-VIEW AND EPISTEMOLOGY 137

5.1 A recapitulation 137
5.2 African World-View and Epistemology 138
5.2.1 Commonsense 138
5.2.2 A Unitary Vision of Reality 138
5.2.2.1 A Sense of Being Part of the Whole 139
5.2.2.2 Reality is Interconnectedness 140
5.2.2.3 Intersubjectivity or Communality 141
5.2.3 Relationality – Participation 142
5.2.4 Language 143
5.2.4.1 The Spoken Word 143
5.2.5 The Human Being: Life 145
5.2.6 Reality is Endowed with Order and Harmony 146
5.2.7 Time 146
5.2.8 Life-Force: The Basic Principle of the Universe 147
5.3 Myth and Logic 148
5.4 Conclusion 150
9