【第11回】“TRANSITIONS”(William Bridges, Da Capo Press, 2004)

Of course, I have learned about human transition which is researched by William Bridges, who is the author of this book, because I majored in Organizational Behavior especially about human career in master course. But to tell the truth, this was the first time to read this “English” book..

  

           At first, the author writes about transition itself. He says that transition is different from “change”. In his definition, change is situational thing, and transition is psychological one. Without a transition, a change is just a rearrangement of the surroundings. So, change is based on outer things.

On the other hand, transition is based on inner matter, especially about personal development. The author says that this views transition as the neutral process of disorientation and reorientation making the turning points in the path of growth.

It is interesting for me that one person’s transition influences the transition of his or her family. When one member of the family feels transition, he or she tends to consider another member’s change transition.

Transition is composed of three phases, that is to say, endings, the neutral zone, and the new beginning.

When we feel transition, we tend to focus on our future. But the author says that it is dangerous for us to neglect the endings of previous situation. For example, marriage is so big transition that we prefer to think about our future life which is positive side, but it is also important to think about the negative side. It is the end of our free life, and it makes us feel some stress. If we neglect this negative effect, we don’t understand the reason why we feel it, and it may cause some kind of mental illness in the worst scenario.

In the neutral zone, we sometimes feel irritating. The neutral zone should be an unfamiliar one and free of the ordinary influences from our daily situations, as was the initiate’s journey of old ones.

Last phase is the new beginning. According to the author, it is difficult for us to know the signs of the new beginning, because the most important of them begins as a faint intimation of something different.