This post is part of a series, see the introduction to Gravsian psychology and Spiral Dynamics for an ordered list of posts.

The earliest value system that Graves defined is the AN system. He summarises it as “Express self as if just another animal according to the dictates of one’s imperative periodic physiological needs (and the needs of the environmental possibilities.)” and sums up AN behaviour as Autistic, Automatic and Reactive.¹

Graves did not identify this system through his research studies on his students, he based it on library research. It is a value system that is rarely encountered in modern life. ² He theorises that it was dominant 40,000 or more years ago. When it is encountered in the modern day it is pathological. ³

Essentially he describes this system as based on humans reaction to the presence or absence of physiological tension and they just react to this tension in a manner that will remove it. ⁴

People centred in this system have no sense of self and are not emotionally engaged. As a result they cannot differentiate their self from others, distinguish actions from environmental consequences and are only aware of space and time local to their current place. ⁵

AN describes humans as animals, rather than human beings. Graves goes as far as to say that people with centralised AN values do not make use of tools.⁶

He identifies this as an ‘I’ centred system by suggesting that AN centred people are essentially operating under the premise that ‘I am in need and if I am to continue to exist, then you must adjust to my signals’.⁷

At the time of his research Graves thought that there were still a few examples of genuine AN as a dominant healthy culture in some remote parts of the world. He theorises that they have not moved on from the AN system because their life conditions have never made it necessary. For example, Graves comments on the Tasaday of the island of Mindanao in the Philippine Archipeliago. Claiming that due to the verdant conditions in which they live, with many caves for easy natural shelter and food that is relatively easy to gather, they have never been motived to move beyond AN.⁸

Graves details the possibility of people in modern culture living an AN existence due to illness or mental disability. He goes on to explore other examples of how the AN system can exist in modern society, exploring both a first world war German soldiers experience and a woman living in a decrepit apartment block. What he identifies as N mind conditions includes an absence of “volitional behaviour”. People living in this state essentially run on automatic, it being very hard to think things through or imagine a different way. ⁹

The AN system is amoral. ethical thinking requires concepts that are beyond this state.

Criticism
Graves demonstrates a poor understanding of evolutionary psychology, although this is understandable as the field was only getting started towards the end of the time that Graves’ was conducting his research. Graves’ description of AN, essentially removes emotion¹⁰, yet emotion is in an integral part of the mammalian brain and has been developing for many millions of years. I think it is likely that there are a multitude of systems between AN and BO that have been lost to history and that the true AN state as Graves describes it never really existed as a human culture, if at all.

Graves Mixes up healthy early social structure with the disabling states of mental illness and old age. I can understand that there may be similarities, but this does not mean that the two states are equivalent.  To his credit, Graves does explore the artificiality of modern versions of AN, he theorises that perhaps the AN system as we see it today is artificially created by later systems, in particular DQ, which enables people who would otherwise have died to survive without enabling them to develop to more advanced values.¹¹

The evidence for the AN system is rather week and circumstantial an requires substantial further research.  This however would be very difficult to conduct. Genuine healthy AN culture is likely extinct and so only existing studies can be cross examined. There has been a great deal of research into mental illness and autism, understanding how society deals with these problems as societies values develop would be useful, but I do not think that this verifies AN as a system.

Notes:
1. The Never Ending Quest p199
2. IBID
3. IBID p200
4. IBID
5. IBID
6. IBID p203
7. IBID p201
8. IBID p203
9. IBID pp204-208
10. IBID p208
11. IBID pp208-211
12. IBID
13. IBID
14. IBID
15. IBID

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 14th, 2009 at 11:56 am and is filed under Spiral Dynamics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.