With a Russian nesting doll you can describe to your children, that a baby was born by a mother, the mother by the grandmother, the grandmother by grand-grand-mother and so on. I’ve often done this with my 4 grandchildren.
Russian “Matryoshka” Nesting Dolls photo by Frizztext
BUT those Russian nesting “MATRYOSHKA” Dolls – Matreshki / Матрёшки – always have been for me a perfect metaphor of lifetime fragments: We start as a baby, then the Kindergarten, the school, high-school, job, founding a family etc.: and all those fragments with different structures of behavior are gathered in one identity …
title=”Cautious Matryoshka” – photo by backpackphotography, kindly sent to my group BLOG IT!, click on the picture to enter his galleries on Flickr.com
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To understand intra psychic stratifications within a person a little bit deeper: The different ages generate different behavior patterns. I have spied out 5 striking structures by means of my long continuing self-analysis, for example, up to now:
- 1) the childhood, baby (entitles: EMILY)
- 2) the school child (entitles: Frits the Cat)
- 3) the pubescent I (: KASPAR HAUSER)
- 4) the JOB-ego (entitles: Genghis Khan)
- 5) the retired elder statesman ego full of wisdom (entitles: Dr. Schwebmann).
title=”Inner Circle” – photo by jronaldlee, kindly sent to my group BLOG IT!, click on the picture to enter his galleries on Flickr.com
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It would depend with a healthy personality-structure to combine all learning layers with each other, acting integrated. By a psychiatric diagnoses personality disturbance (for example, “multiple personality disorder” or “dissociative identity disorder”) the different lifetime periods would lie side by side as fragmented areas without any bridge to combine each other. The decisive level of a person would act chaotically. The different behavior structures of the nesting lifetime periods would fight unpredictable and suddenly vs. each other: The inner child would try to act completely different than a young adult or a wise old man. Maybe a glimpse of those battles are in everyone …
title=”Emergance” – photo by backpackphotography, kindly sent to my group BLOG IT!, click on the picture to enter his galleries on Flickr.com
Flickr Comments 
lots to think about there frizz, i personally don’t worry too much about integration … i am happy to enjoy the present moment … who i am now … how life is now 🙂
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I LOVE Russian dolls–unfortunately I only have a tiny set, 3 nesting dolls.
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hi Bennetta,
I played this GREENSLEEVES just a few minutes ago for you, because you asked for it at my GGG-challenge …
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Thank you so much for your gift–I thoroughly enjoyed it!
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“The different behavior structures of the nesting lifetime periods would fight unpredictable and suddenly vs. each other.” — that’s an insightful analysis. The “fight” is more a growth… Thank you for playing the Greensleeves!
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thank you for the term GROWTH, Amy!
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Maybe its about acknowledging the layers both in the past and the future, exploring and enjoying them where possible.
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My great aunt once brought a set back for me when she visited Russia and I loved them. Now, I’m wondering where they are. We moved a lot and I can’t remember seeing them in years.
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The nesting dolls are such a sweet-looking tool for teaching children, and your rendition of Greensleeves was so enjoyable!
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But why did you pair Greensleeves with the Russian dolls?
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every music arrangement has a history – like the Russian Doll metaphor of different levels, following each other…
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A Russian doll is also a music metaphor for me: I like strolling around on YouTube and compare different versions of the same song. So I left the traditional medieval dance rhythm 6/8 of the famous GREENSLEEVES and changed it by a kind of ragtime guitar picking:
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