Orders of Mind: Kegan

What a person is 'subject to' (embedded in) versus able to take as 'object' (reflect on): needs, relationships, self-authored systems, and finally the systems themselves.

The stages, earliest to latest

1. Imperial mind 2Subject to own needs and interests; others are means to ends.
2. Socialized mind 3Subject to relationships and the expectations of others; self defined by them.
3. Socialized → Self-authoring 3/4Beginning to author own view, but still pulled back by others' expectations.
4. Self-authoring mind 4Has relationships and expectations as object; subject to own value system / ideology.
5. Self-authoring → Self-transforming 4/5Beginning to see own system as partial; testing its limits.
6. Self-transforming mind 5Holds value-systems as object; the self is a process of transformation through relationship.

Sources

• Kegan, R. (1982). The Evolving Self. Harvard University Press.
• Kegan, R. (1994). In Over Our Heads. Harvard University Press.
• Lahey, L. et al. (1988/2011). A Guide to the Subject-Object Interview.

Stage descriptions are paraphrased summaries for orientation, written for Worldview Lens; they are not the official scoring manuals. Example sentences were written to illustrate each stage.