Somewhat ironically, some of these failures from thinking of oneself or others as agents causes a lack of agency! Maybe this is just a trick of language, but here’s what I have in mind from thinking about some of the pitfalls:
Yeah right, I agree with those three bullet points very much. Could also say “thinking of oneself or others as Cartesian agents causes a lack of power”. Does agency=power? I’m not sure what the appropriate words are but I agree with your point.
I see a certain amount of connection here to, for example, developmental psychology, where greater levels of development come from less thinking of oneself as a subject (an agent) and more thinking of the things one does as object and so thinking of oneself less as subject/agent results in greater agency because the range of things one allows oneself to consider mutable is greater.
Yeah, that seems well said to me. This gradual process of taking more things as object seems to lead towards very good things. Circling, I think, has a lot to do with taking the emotions we are used to treating as subject and getting a bit more of an object lens on them just by talking about them. Gendlin’s focussing seems to have a lot to do with this, too.
This also suggests an end state where there’s no agent model at all, or at least not one that is held to tightly
Yeah right, it’s a great lens to pick up and use when its helpful. But nice to know that it’s there and also to be able to put it down by choice.
Yeah right, I agree with those three bullet points very much. Could also say “thinking of oneself or others as Cartesian agents causes a lack of power”. Does agency=power? I’m not sure what the appropriate words are but I agree with your point.
Yeah, that seems well said to me. This gradual process of taking more things as object seems to lead towards very good things. Circling, I think, has a lot to do with taking the emotions we are used to treating as subject and getting a bit more of an object lens on them just by talking about them. Gendlin’s focussing seems to have a lot to do with this, too.
Yeah right, it’s a great lens to pick up and use when its helpful. But nice to know that it’s there and also to be able to put it down by choice.