Our prominent personality features are shaped in early childhood beyond our awareness and control. However, we can change them through our conscious effort throughout our life. The challenge is that emotional growth will stay arrested if the stress from the original environmental stimuli is not processed and resolved. Trauma is an emotional response to a shocking event like an accident, natural disaster, or witnessing or experiencing violence at any age. Still, in childhood, it can be subtle when an unintentional withdrawal of attention, rejection, separation, or abandonment is experienced, even for a short period, from the original attachment figures. This volume covers how the further development of personality is related to enhancing the awareness and skills in answering the following critical questions: What factors contribute to the arrestment of our personality structure? What is the developmental road map to follow on our journey for character building? How does the ability to set or flex boundaries in our important relationships affect our personality? What are the differences among various types of compassion as parts of our personality, such as Identification, apathy, sympathy, indifference, and empathy? How do we develop skills in communication and emotional expression? How do we cultivate emotional intelligence? How can we resolve personality conflicts in a deadlocked marriage? What are typical styles of divorce, custody, adoption, and childcare arrangement according to various stages? Why would conventional parenting practices - authoritarian, permissive, and authoritative not work with the emotionally and behaviorally challenged? What are the good and the bad in Tiger, French, and American mom parenting? How does trauma escalate into hostility according to the "Trauma-Hostility Model"? How are untreated traumas reenacted in our relationship with others or the next generation through an unconscious process? What are the stage-appropriate psychotherapy approaches and typical stress-coping and help-seeking behaviors? What are the five stages in negotiation and conflict management at home or work? What are the five stages in morality and locus of control: "Hierarchy of Human Morality?" What are the ideal leadership styles at each stage of emotional development? How are the themes and characters portrayed in movies and songs of a particular stage of emotional development? While searching for the answers, the readers will find wisdom through truth-finding, grief, acceptance, and renewed hope to embark on a challenging journey toward further growth of personality and the ultimate emotional freedom.

Have evolutionists been right about predicting our culture to move toward a more mature and violence-free society? Then when and how soon can we expect to arrive at the utopia? For many decades, scholars of various fields have attempted to find a unified theory that can explain the developmental path of our civilization. The present author, trained in clinical psychology and social sciences, embarked on this grand project of finding the truth about our civilization. This volume explores a compelling way to explain the movement of our civilization, which confronts us with an alternative reality to the evolutionary view. It shows that changes in human society and culture as the collection of individual personalities are not an automatic biological or evolutionary process but rather a process requiring conscious human effort and proactive decision-making by individuals, parents, leaders, and policymakers. Dr. Roland Kim, a clinical psychologist/researcher, tries to provide the 5-Stage answers to the following crucial questions that help to understand the development of our civilization: What is the best predictor of our civilization's future path, and what real-life evidence can we find to prove if civilization results from evolution or a conscious choice? What are the prevailing emotions and typical adaptive behaviors of a socio-culture as a group of individuals at various stages of development? What are the typical business motivations at various stages among power, achievement, affiliation, individual happiness, and collaboration? What will be the next shape of our economic system, capitalism, in the future? Why are the combined roles of economic and political systems critical toward successful democratization? How do we understand political and legal justice in the developmental context? What is the developmental stage of the leadership styles we observe in our culture, and what are preferred by a particular stage of socio-cultural development? What are the shapes of violence, war, non-violent strategy according to various stages of socio-cultural development? How do we understand gender roles, racism/prejudice, and scapegoating in a developmental context? Which is the better question? Which religion one has ? vs. In what stage is one's faith? What are the psychological motivations behind artistic creativity at various stages of emotional/socio-cultural development? What are its adaptive functions? How do the movies and dramas of different cultures portray their characters and themes? Using the answers to these questions as a compass, parents, leaders, and policymakers will find the wisdom of first embracing their culture, without judgment, and find the direction to navigate it for the better future of our civilization.

A user’s guide to economic, political, social and cultural collapse. In the face of political impotence, resource depletion, and catastrophic climate change, many of us have become reconciled to an uncertain future. However, popular perception of how this future might actually unfold varies wildly from "a severe and prolonged recession," to James Howard Kunstler's "long emergency," to the complete breakdown of civilization. In The Five Stages of Collapse , Dmitry Orlov posits a taxonomy of collapse, offering a surprisingly optimistic perspective on surviving the sweeping changes of the day with health and sanity intact. Arguing that it is during periods of disruption and extreme uncertainty that broad cultural change becomes possible, Orlov steers the reader through the challenges of financial, commercial, and political collapse. He suggests that if the first three stages are met with the appropriate responses, further breakdown may be arrested before the extremes of social and cultural collapse are reached. Drawing on a detailed examination of post-collapse societies, including the Somali people of Africa, the Pashtuns of Afghanistan, the Roma of Central and Eastern Europe, and even the Russian mafia, The Five Stages of Collapse describes successful adaptations in areas such as finance, self-governance, and social and cultural organization. These fascinating case studies provide a unique perspective on the characteristics that determine highly resilient communities. Shot through with Orlov's trademark dark humor, this is an invaluable toolkit for creating workable post-collapse solutions. Dmitry Orlov was born in Leningrad, Russia, and immigrated to the United States. He is the author of Reinventing Collapse and maintains the phenomenally popular blog Club Orlov.

Carroll Quigley was a legendary teacher at the Georgetown School of Foreign Service. His course on the history of civilization was extraordinary in its scope and in its impact on students. Like the course, The Evolution of Civilizations is a comprehensive and perceptive look at the factors behind the rise and fall of civilizations. Quigley examines the application of scientific method to the social sciences, then establishes his historical hypotheses. He poses a division of culture into six levels from the abstract to the more concrete. He then tests those hypotheses by a detailed analysis of five major civilizations: the Mesopotamian, the Canaanite, the Minoan, the classical, and the Western. Quigley defines a civilization as "a producing society with an instrument of expansion." A civilization's decline is not inevitable but occurs when its instrument of expansion is transformed into an institution--that is, when social arrangements that meet real social needs are transformed into social institutions serving their own purposes regardless of real social needs.

The educational literature suggests that international contact contributes to a comprehensive educational experience. The Five Stages of Culture Shock examines an international shipboard educational program and seeks to identify specific insights resulting from informal extracurricular contact between students and host nationals in the context of culture shock experiences. Using the critical incident methodology, Pedersen analyzes students' responses to nearly 300 specific incidents which resulted in insights that apply to the students' own development, as well as the sociocultural context of the host countries. This use of critical incidents shows one way to evaluate and assess the subjective experiences of the informal curriculum. More broadly, the analysis sheds light on the concept of culture shock as a psychological construct.

This book takes readers on a fantastic voyage to the physics of eternity, with a long-term projection of the evolution of the universe.

Spengler's work describes how we have entered into a centuries-long "world-historical" phase comparable to late antiquity, and his controversial ideas spark debate over the meaning of historiography.

This book is an expanded version of The Rhythms of History, the book that made macro-History into a semi-quantitative Science. New features include: 1. an appendix showing how the history of Mayan civilization conforms to the book''s Theory of Civilizations including the latest information from the newly discovered hieroglyphic texts at Dos Pilas, Guatemala; 2. an appendix on the sub-Saharan African civilization, Great Zimbabwe, showing it fits the theory; 3. a comparison of the theory with Toynbee''s observations showing the many new features resulting from a quantitative theory; 4. numerous historic pictures and illustrations of the civilizations of Mankind including a number of newly found pictures from the nineteenth century; 5. a chapter describing the potentially disturbing implications of patterns in civilizations - Are we free? ? and the implications for the Philosophy of History; and 6. expanded comments in many sections such as the sections on the future of Humanity, the role of China, and the Islamic - West conflict. The book begins with a hard hitting, "tell it like it is" chapter on the current international situation with statements such as: "The United States and Western civilization is now engaged in a small Vietnam-style war on a global scale at the time of this writing. This war is still in the early stages of development. ... The attack on the World Trade Center by Muslim terrorists may have the same significance for Western civilization that the Gothic invasion of Rome itself in the prime of the Empire (the First Century AD) had for the future of Rome. They may be a premonition of things to come - not necessarily soon but perhaps in a few centuries. The Goths returned three centuries later and remained as permanent conquerors. ... Over the long term the West must free itself from a dependence on Muslim oil. Muslim oil revenues are the fuel for the development of weapons of mass destruction by Iran and Iraq. In the future they will supply the revenues of an expansionist Islam. ... As the silk trade looted the Roman Empire of its gold and reduced its economy, the trade in oil is looting the West of its prosperity and freedom of action. The rise and fall of oil prices has a significantly greater effect on the American and world economy than the raising and lowering of interest rates by central banks. " The book then describes a theory of civilizations that led to these observations. Currently unfolding events seem to be fulfilling the predictions which were made last year (including the new North Korean threat that seems to be consistent with a predicted breakdown in Japan ? North Korea will create major problems with Japan. As this is being written Japan is moving Aegis destroyers nearer to North Korea and preparing for defense.) THE EVENTS DESCRIBED IN THIS BOOK, AND ITS PREDECESSOR, APPEAR TO BE HAPPENING AS PREDICTED LAST YEAR. According to Theory of Civilizations the basis of civilizations was laid with a genetic mutation (found by Ding et al) 40,000 years ago that created bold enterprising individuals who became the leadership group of civilizations: a group that Toynbee called the "creative minority." When the world''s climate became warmer and more stable 10,000 years ago the seeds of civilizations began to germinate. Thus the origin of civilizations is tied to human genetics. The book then shows that a long-term social behavior pattern of mankind (based on four generation trends) causes civilizations to develop and "oscillate" in patterns of routs and rallies. Civilizations rise and fall due to their internal human dynamics. The theory of civilization is developed using equations and 68 diagrams that show a close detailed match between the theory and the actual history of all known Asian, European and African civilizations over the last 5,500 years. The theory projects the future of today''s civilizations (including the future of Western and Islamic civilizations). It also successfully describes the interaction of barbarians and civilizations, the interaction of two civilizations, the impact of modern technology on civilizations (it accounts for the Luddite reaction to the Industrial Revolution), the impact of major environmental events on civilizations (e.g. the collapse of Minoan civilization due to a volcanic eruption), and the disintegration of civilizations. It also accounts for the tremendous growth phases seen in many civilizations such as the building of the great pyramids in Egyptian civilizations. Based on the theory fifteen new civilizations are identified including new prehistoric Chinese and Egyptian civilizations. Having shown the success of the theory for earth civilizations it considers the form of extraterrestrial civilizations and calculates their impact on Western civilization should contact be established. The book also shows the need for the colonization of space and nearby planets if mankind is to progress in the future. The book analyzes the impact of the lengthening life spans of mankind on the future of civilizations. Predictions are made for the "state of the world" for 2050 and 2100. A detailed understanding the past enables the theory of civilizations to make predictions for the future. Defining Progress to be the sum of the world''s civilizations the book shows that Progress seems to be approximately linearly increasing over the last 5,500 years. A plot of Progress appears on the book''s cover (shown on this web page) together with the contributions of each civilization to Progress. (The vertical order of the civilizations in the plot is arbitrary. Older civilizations tend to be lower in the plot.) The book is a tour de force that makes History a Science rather than a collection of random events. It is the first detailed mathematical treatment of history. Although the book contains mathematics it is intended for the general reader as well as the mathematically inclined. There are copious verbal descriptions of the theory as well as many figures plotting the theory versus historical events. A qualitative, descriptive theory of civilizations is also presented that is like a "Dow Theory of Civilizations."

Based on the idea that communication technologies are a primary shaping force of civilizations, "Five Epochs of Civilization" presents a new scheme of world history. It identifies five epochs of historical experience and associates each with a civilization focused on particular institutions. These are: -- Civilization I focused on government, ending in large political empires -- Civilization II focused on religion, ending in the three world religions -- Civilization III focused on commerce and education within the nation state -- Civilization IV focused on the media of news and entertainment -- Civilization V focused on the internet and beyond The communication technologies which triggered these changes in culture (and their approximate dates of introduction) include: ideographic writing (3100 B.C.), alphabetic writing (800 B.C.), printing (1450 A.D.), electronic recording and broadcasting (1920 A.D.), and computer networks (1990 A.D.). McGaughey includes separate narratives for each of the four civilizations that have appeared to date in a developed form plus 'imaginative and plausible speculations concerning a possible fifth, computer-based civilization'.

From the author of Guns, Germs and Steel, Jared Diamond's Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive is a visionary study of the mysterious downfall of past civilizations. Now in a revised edition with a new afterword, Jared Diamond's Collapse uncovers the secret behind why some societies flourish, while others founder - and what this means for our future. What happened to the people who made the forlorn long-abandoned statues of Easter Island? What happened to the architects of the crumbling Maya pyramids? Will we go the same way, our skyscrapers one day standing derelict and overgrown like the temples at Angkor Wat? Bringing together new evidence from a startling range of sources and piecing together the myriad influences, from climate to culture, that make societies self-destruct, Jared Diamond's Collapse also shows how - unlike our ancestors - we can benefit from our knowledge of the past and learn to be survivors. 'A grand sweep from a master storyteller of the human race' - Daily Mail 'Riveting, superb, terrifying' - Observer 'Gripping ... the book fulfils its huge ambition, and Diamond is the only man who could have written it' - Economis 'This book shines like all Diamond's work' - Sunday Times