I did some background reading on this quote recently. It’s funny how it means something rather more restricted in its original context. Gendlin was writing about honestly sharing one’s thoughts and feelings about another person with them rather than telling them what one thinks they want to hear or what one wishes were true of one’s own feelings. That’s what the “owning up”, “not being open”, and “already enduring it” refer to. But now that it’s been pulled out of context, it seems to say quite a lot more.
I did some background reading on this quote recently. It’s funny how it means something rather more restricted in its original context. Gendlin was writing about honestly sharing one’s thoughts and feelings about another person with them rather than telling them what one thinks they want to hear or what one wishes were true of one’s own feelings. That’s what the “owning up”, “not being open”, and “already enduring it” refer to. But now that it’s been pulled out of context, it seems to say quite a lot more.