Re: Re: Who's saying what to whom?

[Guest guest]



I'm exactly the same.

ivor

Re: Who's saying what to whom?

Thanks,A very solid response. I think my verbal mind tries to get involved and turns far too many simple choices into lengthy internal debates before any action is taken. Getting better, though.Cheers > >> > Do you mean that choices come from what ACT calls > > 'The observer'? This is what I am confused about. > > Choice must come from an intelligence somewhere in > > our personality but from what I have read the thinking > > part of your brain can't make a choice - it can only > > make a judgment. If a choice is random I may as well > > close my eyes and stick a pin in a list of possible > > options.> > As you probably know, ACT draws on many sources - perhaps> the most important being a particular branch of behavioral> science. I'm simplifying because I don't know this stuff> from a science point of view, but as I understand it, one> of the tenants is that you can talk about the behavior of> an organism from the POV of the whole organism only - and> not only that, but the whole organism (say, a cat, or you> or me) in the context of its environment. Behavioral analysis> does do some parsing of reality (for example, into > antecedents, behaviors, and consequences), but it admits> that such parsings are not themselves "reality" in any> absolute sense - they are done only for pragmatic purposes.> > So if I consider myself as a whole organism, and then> look at my own experience not only day to day but> moment to moment, I can find a nearly constant stream> of behaviors which are not random (they have a purpose)> and which involve what we might call choice (I do one> thing and not another) and which do not require my> verbal brain. Crossing the street or not crossing the> street because a car is coming - I don't have to worry> about which part of my brain is doing that or if it> reflects one self or another. > > And consider how many choices non-verbal organisms make - > do they need to stop & consider their personality and > worry about what part of them is choosing? My cat doesn't - > I don't know what goes through his mind (or rather, > what he is experiencing "from the inside" that he can't > tell me about) but I am pretty confident that when he > chooses to go out or stay in it's not that different > from how I make that choice for myself. I can do certain> behaviors he can't (and vice versa), but so far as I know, > that does not mean he is making choices out of a void. > > It's only the verbal mind that insists that without its> help, we'd be lost, or that without its constant> evaluations and definitions "we" wouldn't really exist.> Clearly an enormous amount of human experience does require> verbal behavior and this is fine - and we are also much> more than that. > > Look at your own experience as you actually experience it. > To paraphrase your original subject line, who's really > doing what? > > -R.>