Óscar Ichazo

Oscar Ichazo (July 24, 1931 – March 26, 2020[1]) was the Bolivian-born philosopher and originator of Integral Philosophy. In 1968, Ichazo founded the Arica School.

Integral Philosophy is a new philosophical tradition that presents a complete analysis of the human condition from the lowest levels of the human process to the highest States of Enlightenment (Gk. Theosis).[2][3] This body of teaching includes the analysis that Ichazo originally termed Protoanalysis, and Ichazo's Enneagram of Personality. In Ichazo's teachings the enneagram figure was initially called an enneagon.[4][5][6]

In a 1954 interview, Ichazo said that he had achieved insight into mechanistic and repetitive thought and behavior patterns. These processes can be understood in connection with the enneagram figure, classical philosophy and what he called "Trialectical Logic," which analyzes reality on the basis of cycles.[7]

In Protoanalysis, Ichazo described nine ways in which a person's ego becomes fixated within the psyche at an early stage of life. For each person, one of these "ego fixations" then becomes the core of a self-image around which their psychological personality develops. Each fixation is also supported at the emotional level by a particular "passion." Ichazo described these passions as emotional energy in disarray, much like a sickness.[8] The principal psychological connections between the nine ego fixations can be "mapped" using the points, lines, and circle of the enneagram figure.[9]

Ichazo's teachings are designed to help people transcend their identification with — and the suffering caused by — their own mechanistic thought and behavior patterns. His theories about the fixations are founded on the premise that all life seeks to continue and perpetuate itself and that the human psyche must follow universal laws of reality. The study of the fixations does not produce a typology. Rather, it analyzes the characteristics of the human ego based on the three Instincts known as Conservation, Relation, and Adaptation, and the two "Poles" of our psychic life: our sexuality or sense of life continuation, and our spirituality, or sense of internal unity.[10]

Ichazo understood the fixations as instinctual points that have been hurt. The primary difference between modern psychology and his theories is that he proposed a model of the psyche where the Instincts, when affected, injured or handicapped, can be liberated to accomplish Unity,[11] whereas modern psychology has preferred to focus on observed behavior.

According to Ichazo, a person's fixation derives from childhood subjective experience (self-perception) of psychological trauma when expectations are not met in each of the instincts. Young children are self-centered and thus experience disappointment in their expectations because of one of three fundamental attitudes: attracted, unattracted, disinterested. From such experiences, mechanistic thought and behavior patterns arise as an attempted defense against the recurrence of the trauma. By understanding the fixations — and practicing self-observation — it is believed that a person can reduce or even transcend suffering and the fixations' hold on the mind.

Although some modern Enneagram of Personality writers have believed that Ichazo's teachings are derived, in part, from those of Gurdjieff's Fourth Way work,[12] Ichazo denied this in his "Letter to the Transpersonal Community."[13] In July 1990, as part of a settlement with Dimension Books, each of the authors who were part of the lawsuit agreed in writing that "Oscar Ichazo is the sole originator of the theory of the ego fixations and the system of enneagons representing the different functions of the human Psyche." [14]

In 1992 intellectual copyright for the Enneagram of Personality was denied to Ichazo on the basis that he had published statements that his theories were factual, and factual ideas cannot be copyrighted.[15] The litigation, however, confirmed Oscar Ichazo as the source of the Enneagram of Personality and Fixations, its application, meaning, and related material.[16]

See also

References
  1. "Oscar Ichazo". www.arica.org. Retrieved 2020-04-03.
  2. Ichazo, Oscar (2020). The History of the Integral Teachings.
  3. Ichazo, Oscar (2020). The Four Killers of Humanity: The Ethical Solution to our Existential Crisis.
  4. Ichazo, Oscar (1976). The Human Process for Enlightenment and Freedom. Arica Institute, Inc. ISBN 0-671-22432-8.
  5. Ichazo, Oscar (1982). Interviews with Óscar Ichazo. Arica Press. ISBN 0-916554-02-3.
  6. Ichazo, Oscar (1982). Between Metaphysics and Protoanalysis: A Theory for Analyzing the Human Psyche. Arica Institute Press. ISBN 0-916554-04-X.
  7. Insights into the Teacher, the Philosophy, the School, p. 19.
  8. Ichazo, The History of the Integral Teachings, p. 368.
  9. Palmer, The Enneagram in Love and Work, pp. 24–26.
  10. Ichazo, The History of the Integral Teachings, pp. 17-18.
  11. Insights into the Teacher, the Philosophy, the School, p. 152.
  12. Palmer, The Enneagram in Love and Work, pp. 20–29.
  13. "Letter to the Transpersonal Community", by Óscar Ichazo, 1991. This letter can be accessed from the "Ichazo" section of http://www.arica.org/
  14. Arica Institute, Inc. v. Dimension Books, Inc. No. 88 Civ, 2004 (S.D.N.Y.)
  15. Arica v. Palmer, court case, provided by Information Law Web
  16. Insights into the Teacher, the Philosophy, the School, pp. 175-177.

Bibliography
  • Ichazo, Oscar (1976). The Human Process for Enlightenment and Freedom: A Series of Five Lectures. Arica Institute, Inc. ISBN 0-671-22432-8.
  • Ichazo, Óscar (1982). Interviews with Óscar Ichazo. Arica Press. ISBN 0-916554-02-3.
  • Ichazo, Óscar (1982). Between Metaphysics and Protoanalysis: A Theory for Analyzing the Human Psyche. Arica Institute Press. ISBN 0-916554-04-X.
  • Ichazo, Oscar (1986). Master Level Exercise: Psychocalisthenics. Arica Institute Press. ISBN 0-916554-25-2.
  • Ichazo, Oscar (2015). Oscar Ichazo: Insights Into the Teacher · The Philosophy · The School. The Oscar Ichazo Foundation. ISBN 978-0-916554-00-2.
  • Ichazo, Oscar (2016). The Religious Consciousness. The Oscar Ichazo Foundation. ISBN 978-0-916554-14-9.
  • Ichazo, Oscar (2018). The Nine Constituents: The Science of the Human Condition from Ego to Enlightenment. Arica Institute Press. ISBN 978-0-916554-16-3.
  • Ichazo, Oscar (2020). The History of the Integral Teachings. The Oscar Ichazo Foundation. ISBN 978-0-916554-20-0.
  • Ichazo, Oscar (2020). The Four Killers of Humanity: The Ethical Solution to our Existential Crisis. The Oscar Ichazo Foundation. ISBN 978-0-916554-19-4.
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