Why is integration essential to good mental health and hygiene, and what actually does the word integrate mean? It is from a Latin root integrate, meaning ‘to make whole, to renew’. Generally speaking, it is a well-kept secret that humans need to regularly update their self content, incorporating any newly acquired ‘data’ into the whole. Sometimes we make acquaintance with a new bit of information but it doesn’t stick. It comes in one ear and out the other, or in one part of our brain and out another, not affecting us with any power and leaving us basically unchanged. Sometimes, we take in new information and it interests us but we don’t exactly know what to do with it. It may get tucked away, held in some separated out part of our brain. Later on, it may get triggered or tapped, and come into a kind of use that we couldn’t previously make of it. Another possibility is that something new is learned and it totally affects the person at the point, causing them to get excited, curious, and wanting to know more. In this case, by responding passionately, by talking about it, by making use of it – this new bit of knowledge – a process of integration is begun. The interaction between ourselves and it causes new links to form, new neural nets, as our attention stays focused on this new datum (see “The Significance of Attention”).
The extent to which we are able to integrate the new bit into the systems of ourselves determines the extent to which we can make active and creative use of it. If new thoughts, feelings, behaviors are built around this new information, there is a renewal of self, a self-generated process of making creating a new whole. If I take this seriously, I would need to (re)introduce myself to myself each morning upon arising. Not filling in the space with the same me, each time I wake up in the morning, but instead saying to myself, “hello, good morning, who are we today?”
Without integration, without creating new wholes and thus new selves, all that a person knows and loves is less available to him or her. The speed of decision is decreased. A sense of confidence in one’s beliefs is weakened. The ability to know oneself is lessened. Being mindful about the need to actively integrate parts of ourselves into working wholes is essential to good working order! As with good housekeeping, the tasks of self-integration involve cleaning away clutter and dust (old views that no longer fit), and looking to update by bringing in new furniture, rugs, lamps, etc, that better fit the new lifestyle within the house, and then arranging things so that it feels like a home.