THE ANATOMY OF CONSCIOUSNESS ■ 41is a struggle for establishing control over attention. The struggle does
not necessarily have to be physical, as in the case of the climber. But
anyone who has experienced flow knows that the deep enjoyment it
provides requires an equal degree of disciplined concentration.
Complexity and the Growth of the Self
Following a flow experience, the organization of the self is more complex
than it had been before. It is by becoming increasingly complex that the
self might be said to grow. Complexity is the result of two broad psycho
logical processes: differentiation and integration. Differentiation implies a
movement toward uniqueness, toward separating oneself from others.
Integration refers to its opposite: a union with other people, with ideas
and entities beyond the self. A complex self is one that succeeds in
combining these opposite tendencies.
The self becomes more differentiated as a result of flow because
overcoming a challenge inevitably leaves a person feeling more capable,
more skilled. As the rock climber said, “You look back in awe at the
self, at what you’ve done, it just blows your mind.” After each episode
of flow a person becomes more of a unique individual, less predictable,
possessed of rarer skills.
Complexity is often thought to have a negative meaning, synony
mous with difficulty and confusion. That may be true, but only if we
equate it with differentiation alone. Yet complexity also involves a sec
ond dimension—the integration of autonomous parts. A complex en
gine, for instance, not only has many separate components, each per
forming a different function, but also demonstrates a high sensitivity
because each of the components is in touch with all the others. Without
integration, a differentiated system would be a confusing mess.
Flow helps to integrate the self because in that state of deep
concentration consciousness is unusually well ordered. Thoughts, inten
tions, feelings, and all the senses are focused on the same goal. Experi
ence is in harmony. And when the flow episode is over, one feels more
“together” than before, not only internally but also with respect to
other people and to the world in general. In the words of the climber
whom we quoted earlier: “[There’s] no place that more draws the best
from human beings... [than] a mountaineering situation. Nobody
hassles you to put your mind and body under tremendous stress to get
to the top.... Your comrades are there, but you all feel the same way
anyway, you’re all in it together. Who can you trust more in the twen