conflict between social groups.

Such explicit reognition of the "heart of civilization" highlights the irony of the current status of Mesopotamia, long claimed as the historical heart (Curtis Ford, Mesopotamia: the heart of civilization, 2017). How indeed will the future appreciate the degree of systematic destruction wrecked upon the cradle of civilization in the past decades by the societies which arose from it? Engendering a "hole in the heart"?

Possibilities of interrelating ring and heart curve

Is the challenge of articulating the ring usefully to be seen as one of deconstructing the ring into its geometric elements and recombining them in ways which distinguish distinctive cognitive phases? Their distinctiveness could then be seen as a cognitive reflection of the contrasting dynamics within a viable pumping heart.

Rolling cycle: One is indeed generatedthat the "Lion will lie down with the Lamb"
in an ideal form of symbiosis. There are in fact conditions under which even synnecrosis
would appear to be appropriate -- as in decay processes necessary as precursors
to regeneration. The real challenge is to ensure an appropriate systemic balance
between the various forms of interaction - and, metaphorically, to avoid."throwing
the baby out with the bathwater".

Coaction cardioid variously oriented

Upright heart pattern

Haskell's Cartesian orientation

Inverted heart pattern

Edward Haskell's insights have been very usefully (and extensively) adapted
by Timothy Wilken (The
Relationship Continuum, 2002) to an ordering of the spectrum of personal
relationships: adversity -- neutrality -- synergy. Wilken equates "synergy"
with "positive" and "adversity" with "negative"
therefore pointing to the relevance of his adaptation to the preoccupation of
this paper. Wilken's study reframes Haskell's above ordering in the following
table, where "win"