Ego Development Theory: Working With The Achiever Stage in Psychotherapy
The achiever stage of ego development is marked by a profound transition to one’s inner authority. An individual who has reached this stage of development has been able to to shift the way they define themselves from external sources to their own internal ones.
They realize they have a say in how they are in the world and don’t have to be or do only what others expect of them. This frees up quite a bit of energy for them to focus on their self-defined pursuits and personal goals. Because of this, it is also a stage where they lean into their unique personality traits, hone their talents and strengths, and embrace their individuality.
As with all stages, there are light and shadow sides to this stage.
On the light side, the individual develops a deep sense of personal responsibility for one’s self and one’s life. Additionally much of the world’s excellence begins in this stage as individuals focus much of their energy on the pursuit of excellence and mastery of their craft. The frontal cortex is also being ripened during this stage, as individuals develop the ability for advanced cognition, rationality, and complex reasoning.
On the shadow side, individuals at this stage can can become over-identified with their achievements, which can lead them to link their sense of worth to how they perform. They begin to reach the limitations of this stage when that link drives fear of failure, perfectionism, and endless comparison in social life.
Conscientious meaning-makers can be very severe critics of themselves and fall into deep despair. As self-authoring individuals who accepted that they are in charge of their own destinies, not being successful is taken as a sign one has not done one’s best or betrayed one’s deepest potential.
Susanne Cook-Greuter in 9 Levels of Increasing Embrace
Additionally, egoic defenses at this stage are usually intellectualization and emotional repression, devaluing emotions and neglecting the importance of emotional information to human life. This can lead to anxiety, chronic stress, and burnout, which can eventually manifest as psychosomatic symptoms, behavioral issues, and neglecting deeper existential needs and desires necessary for long-term well-being.
In other words, their ego structure and defenses are repressing their soul’s (the deeper self) desire to deepen and expand, and their soul eventually yells louder. This is the stage where clients experience an ego death or dark night of the soul. Although, sometimes the ego’s transition into the next stage happens more gradually through the manifestation of symptoms they often come to therapy to address.
A major goal of therapy when a client is differentiating from this stage is to highlight the limited nature of a rational worldview and emphasize the concept of there being multiplicity within the self.
Mark Forman in A Guide to Integral Psychotherapy
When working with clients in therapy at this stage, it’s helpful to help them lead and gently support them in accessing the underlying emotions, vulnerabilities, and sensitivities they might be neglecting. Therapy is a space where they don’t have to perform. They can be messy, lose control, and connect with disowned aspects of self.
It’s also important to consider that their psychological, emotional, behavioral, and even physical symptoms might just be signaling the need for a stage transition, versus a diagnosis of pathology with a palliative approach.
The goal, as usual, is to transcend and include the current stage. Meaning, how can they continue honoring the best of the current stage (personal talents, discipline and work ethic, pursuit of mastery, capacity for critical thinking and objectivity), while working to explore and integrate the positive aspects of the leading stage (inherent worthiness, spontaneity and flow, honoring intuition, capacity for emotional sensitivity and subjectivity).
Once cognitive restructuring has taken place and the individual has rationally understood the importance of honoring the inner life, it can help to use the strengths of the current stage to support the development of the positive aspects of the next. Meaning a client can intentionally create a structured experience that honors their need for structure, discipline, and a sense of achievement, that allows them to also lean into flow states.
For example, I was recently supporting a high-achieving client who was nearing burnout intentionally structure a year-long sabbatical where she would spend the year engaging different flow-state activities (dance, surfing, nature photography).
