Sitting in the Between: Notes from a Psychological Interregnum

Between the old and the new, something deeply human takes place: the making and unmaking of meaning.

Read the original post on the Bright Insight Blog!

A member of the Bloomers: Gifted and 2e Adults group was asking what we call the space that exists between paradigms, and it was brought forward as a “Monday Musing" in the group (a provocative or fun question used to get the group discussing neat stuff). I really enjoyed the question… maybe too much. LOL.

People had so many beautiful suggestions.

“Liminal space" came up quickly, a term I use a lot myself, naming that threshold where one reality has dissolved and another hasn't quite formed. Others spoke to the retrospective nature of awareness, how we rarely see paradigms until we’ve moved beyond them. Some offered alternative framings like “the flux," “the crossroad," or “the balance" (even when it doesn’t feel like one). While some referenced lesser-known but resonant terms like metaxu, the in-between relational space, or kairotic, described as a “pregnant crack in the timeline." There were also reflections on how liminality is less a cognitive gap and more a felt state. One Bloomer quoted Ernst Bloch, who wrote of horizon-loss as a terrifying yet fertile ground where hope must be newly imagined, while another brought up Kuhn, cautioning that we don’t really exist between paradigms but between periods of normal science, where cracks start to form.

My gosh, I love this group.

All of these perspectives point to something essentially ineffable: that strange, unstable, generative space where frameworks collapse and something else, still unformed, begins to stir in and around us. To me, this harkens to my dear Dąbrowski and the reality of (positive) disintegration. It is a space I know all too well, and it has sometimes felt like the enemy. It is a good place to be, though—a home where I've recently rested, as so much of what I believed about myself falls away as almost suddenly and drastically unimportant. So where am I now? What do I call this space between old paradigms and new psychological structures? Maybe it is a psychological interregnum.

Let Me Clarify

The psychological interregnum is an aporetic state marked by ontological suspension and paradigmatic indeterminacy. I know that is a lot of dense language used to describe something that, by nature, resists neat operationalization, which is kind of the point, right? I will seek to explain.

In total, this sentence describes a deeply destabilizing yet potentially generative phase in development: a moment when the self is caught in a space of irresolvable uncertainty, no longer oriented by prior ways of being or knowing, and not yet anchored in new ones. It is the psychic terrain of transformation that is neither linear nor logical, albeit necessary.

Let me define the terms interregnum, aporetic state, ontological suspension, and paradigmatic indeterminacy, though, so I might make my point.

Interregnum

The term interregnum originates from political theory and denotes the interval between regimes where one government or authority has fallen and the next has not yet been established. It is a period characterized by suspension, uncertainty, and potential upheaval. Antonio Gramsci famously described the interregnum as a time when “the old is dying and the new cannot be born," adding that in this in-between, a great variety of morbid symptoms appear. The term has since taken on broader cultural and philosophical significance, signaling any transitional state in which former structures no longer hold power, yet no new order has emerged to replace them. It marks a vacuum of social, political, or psychological coherence, and invites both crisis and the conditions for emergence.

Aporetic State

An aporetic state is one of irresolvable tension or logical impasse, derived from the Greek aporia, meaning “without passage." In philosophy, it refers to a moment of paradox or uncertainty that disrupts linear thought and undermines assumed coherence. Psychologically, this manifests as a state in which conflicting inner truths or developmental demands cannot be reconciled, leaving the individual suspended in a space where no clear resolution is available. While it may initially feel frustrating or disorienting, the aporetic state can also be a fertile space that invites deep reflection, challenges habitual meaning-making, and opens the door to unexpected forms of transformation.

Ontological Suspension

Ontological suspension refers to the temporary destabilization or deactivation of one's basic sense of being, coherence, or selfhood. Ontology, the philosophical study of being, gives us the foundation here. When someone is in ontological suspension, they lose hold of their assumed frameworks of existence. In this state, identity may feel fragmented or untethered from familiar roles, narratives, or core orientations. This kind of hovering in-between, where the self is no longer what it was and not yet what it is becoming is not a loss of self so much as an opening where something else may emerge.

Paradigmatic Indeterminacy

Paradigmatic indeterminacy names the absence or failure of a guiding framework to organize thought, meaning, or behavior. A paradigm is a dominant model or structure of understanding; when it becomes indeterminate, it no longer provides direction or coherence. This state tends to emerge during transitions between belief systems, psychological developmental stages, or cultural models of selfhood. While it can feel deeply destabilizing, it is also the raw ground from which new paradigms may emerge, often in subtle or unanticipated ways.

So, What is the Psychological Interregnum?

If all of this sounds abstract, that’s because it is, and maybe necessarily so. Still, it describes something many of us know intimately. It might feel like the grief that comes after the loss of a foundational relationship, the aching confusion during a major vocational shift, or the existential freefall of worldview collapse. In these moments, what once made sense no longer does, and what might come next is still beyond reach. These are inner tectonic shifts that alter how meaning is structured altogether, not just circumstantial disruptions.

The psychological interregnum is what I’ve come to call that liminal phase where a person’s prior psychological framework, their identity, worldview, sense of meaning (hello disintegration), has fallen away, and nothing new has yet taken shape. As an aporetic state, it is defined by unresolved contradictions and tensions and a kind of deep unknowing that refuses tidy resolution (hello mystery). Ontological suspension enters when the familiar sense of self or coherence has gone offline, as if the internal ground has suddenly disappeared (oof). Layered on top is paradigmatic indeterminacy, where even the frameworks that once helped us make meaning no longer apply, offering no clear replacement. It’s disorienting, painful, and strangely quiet, and in my experience, it is also where real transformation begins to take root. It is horrible. It is wonderful. It is all the things at once.

A Dąbrowskian Perspective on Interregnality

Does this sound familiar to my Dąbrowskians and fellow psychoneurotics? It should. What I’m describing maps closely onto Dąbrowski’s Theory of Positive Disintegration. The psychological interregnum reflects that space between levels and phases, and particularly the disintegrative tension between Level III and Level IV, where the lower, often socially conditioned structures of the self begin to fall apart and away, and the higher, self-authored values have not yet solidified. It is where unilevel conflicts begin to verticalize. In Dąbrowskian terms, this is the crucible of development—the necessary collapse that precedes inner transformation. The aporetic nature of this space mirrors the paradoxes of accelerated growth:

Progress through disorder.

Identity through fragmentation.

Becoming through un-becoming.

The horror and wonder of the psychological interregnum is the very terrain and territory of positive disintegration.

Some Encouragement

Perhaps that is why the question in our Bloomers group resonated so deeply with me and many others. It is not just about what exists between paradigms. Maybe it is more about how we live there, feel there, dissolve and reassemble there. It is about recognizing that between the old and the new, something deeply human takes place: the making and unmaking of meaning for the pattern-finders and meaning-makers. In Dąbrowskian terms, it is the territory of positive disintegration. It is a psychological interregnum that invites transformation through inner tension rather than collapse for collapse’s sake. If you are in it now, you might not need to fix it. You might just need to recognize it. Sometimes the most meaningful thing we can do in the midst of ontological suspension or paradigmatic indeterminacy is stay present with the discomfort, let go of urgent meaning-making, and listen for what wants to emerge from within. The noisy outside will always have something to say. What emerges from the inside may come by way of whisper, and it asks for a different kind of attention rooted in gentle patience. I hope to be still enough to receive it.

Enjoy this song titled Liminal, with lyrics by me and music by SUNO: https://suno.com/s/CqoMgtiFryWrr9qL