Page 213 - Mike Ratner CC - WISR Complete Dissertation - v6
P. 213
spaces assisted me with understanding how the physical space contributed to the overall
experience. We can get very metaphysical here but let’s quickly relate concepts that help inform
what I am trying to describe using the term “Metasphere” as the ‘felt space’ around us that creates
a conducive environment and atmosphere for an open and free dialogue exchange to occur.
Collective unconscious, a term coined by Carl Jung, refers to structures of the unconscious mind
which are shared among beings of the same species. According to Jung, the human collective
unconscious is populated by instincts and by archetypes: universal symbols such as The Great
Mother, the Wise Old Man, the Shadow, the Tower, Water, the Tree of Life, and many more relate
to metaphors and colloquial terms and slang among social cultural references (relating to a TV
show or celebrity reputation) are indicative of shared meanings although not everyone for many
reasons may ‘get’ what specifically is being referenced.
C. Wright Mills contrasted the immediate milieu of jobs/family/neighborhood with the
wider formations of the social structure, highlighting in particular a distinction between "the
personal troubles of milieu" and the "public crises of social structure". (Worsley, 1991, p. 17)
Emile Durkheim took a wider view of the social environment (milieu social), arguing that it
contained internalized norms and representations of social forces/social facts: "Our whole social
environment seems to be filled with forces which really exist only in our own minds" (Durkheim,
1971, p. 227). Phenomenologists contrast two alternative visions of society, as a deterministic
constraint (milieu) and as a nurturing shell (ambiance). (O’Niell, 1972, p. 174-5) Max Scheler
distinguishes between milieu as an experienced value-world, and the objective social environment
on which we draw to create the former, noting that the social environment can either foster or
restrain our creation of a personal milieu (Dürrschmidt, 2000, p. 47). How might intervention or
subtle maneuvering enhance experiential participation? Pierre Janet saw neurosis as in part the
194