For under the harsh dictatorship of my father, I found myself struggle to gain control. I wanted to be free. Perhaps that is why I am a strong believer in the human right of choice. Those people who are twice-born are often struggling with their own identity in life and are going through many profound life transitions. I myself was wandering about in my adult life, being uncertain about what I wanted to do in life. Some people might even have called me a spoiled “dilatant.” I went through several profound “twice-born” transformations myself—one of these transformations being my turning from medicine and philosophy to psychology. I wonder if any of us would be here today if it wasn’t for my transformation and the creation of psychology as an independent discipline.
Then there are those people who are “once-born.” They move through life with a single-minded purpose. They are the “healthy-minded” who are clear about their priorities and hold a set of values that remain constant throughout their life. On the one hand, we might think of these people as less interesting than the twice-born. I suspect that my brother, Henry James, would much rather write about the twice-born who struggle with a sickened soul. On the other hand, perhaps those of us who are twice-born envy the once-born. We would like to live a life that is a bit more boring and a bit less eventful. We would like our choices to be a bit easier. Perhaps the Freudians and Jungians are right about the powerful hold that unconscious processes have over us – especially if we are twice-born.
