Understanding Different Worlds : The Theory of Dimensional Accruall Dissociation

Theories of communication abound. Most attempt to explain communication as if it were a uniform behavior which can be understood by a universal set of axioms or a set of unilinear variables. However, research in multicultural, intercultural, and cross-cultural communication has generated data that defy a singular theory or set of universal laws. The values of parsimony and heuristic scope that most theoreticians hold dear have made it difficult for them to appreciate the complexity of communication as an environmental process that is neither unilinear nor unidimensional. The theory of dissociation and dimensional accrual explains the variety of communicative behaviors that have been widely observed and reported, by initiating the explanation at the fundamental levels of space and time. The theory states that as one moves from the magic univalent, to the mythic bivalent and to the perspectival trivalent worlds, dimensional awareness accrues or increases. This does not, however mean that it becomes "better", for no transcendental criteria are assumed. Nor is accrual a form of "progress," because no final goal or telos is assumed. The magic human is evinced by the emergence (co-constitutional genesis) of self and Other(s). Magic is a clear expression of want and identity as difference. However, identity is still predominant. Incantation is identical with the thing "evoked." Magic communication is idolic in nature. Mythic humans exhibit more dissociation than magic humans. Mythic communication' is characterized by polarities, such as yin and yang and figural and literal, whereby each polar quality contains aspects of the other. Myth is polarized and as such it is ambiguous. Mythic communication is symbolic in nature. The perspectival world is characterized by a complete dissociation and fragmentation of the world. Rather than polar complementarity, in the perspectival world opposition becomes the dominant mode. An example is dialectical dualistic thinking, which is manifested as a strong concern for egological issues in psychology, linguistics, politics, economics, science, law, epistemology, and so forth. Perspectival communication is signalic, absolutely arbitrary as evinced in codes. However, accrual is not a simple linear process. Rather, as dimensions of awareness compound the total is different from the sum of parts. The whole exhibits synergy. As a person becomes aware of more and more dimensions, that person's identity shifts accordingly. One becomes more and more dissociated from other phenomena in the world. The world increasingly fragments, not only psychologically and interpersonally but also in terms of measurement and mechanism. For instance, the perspectival modern world is characterized by the total separation and creation of the subject and the object. Ironically, strict objectivists invented the subject sui generis by logical implication.