When you say "we do choose the characters that fascinate us most", you are speaking of "we" as if we were all conscious.
I suppose I should have said, choice does play a role, rather than simply "we do choose", though my main point in that bit was that we can un-choose.
Our preferences are determined by previous and present circumstance and previous and present conscious choice. While I agree we might not be always be able to easily trace the workings when we are drawn to a choice, we are not helpless to them either. Introspection and self-honesty can help us see the route, however.
I do believe only part of us is conscious, and I believe it is shaped by our conscious actions and conscious reactions to circumstances. The parts that aren't conscious contribute to my conscious mind as much as my skeleton. And in fact, my bones are one of my unconscious bits. They don't speak to me, but I rely on them (in part, let's not forget about muscles and such!) to get me around. If they weren't there anymore, it would be weird and hence my conscious mind would be changed by that. There's no need to mystify it and I think doing so can actually be harmful.
I don't believe in the id/superego/ego model. Hence, we may be at an impasse due to differing beliefs. I simply don't believe in psychoanalysis, so those rules don't really mean much to me. But that's alright.
But speaking of psychology! Maybe this falls under social behavoirists, but I learned about this fellow under the heading of psychology...would you happen to know name of the person who had the theory that children learned to interpret their environment by categorizing things? Such as, child sees animal with four legs and it is a cat. All four legged animals are cats, until something new is presented to further narrow the categories. I have lost his name twice, and it's not an easy thing to google.
Brain fry empathy. :)
Hmm...Livejournal keeps telling me "cannot reply to a nonexistent comment". It's done this before when I've tried to reply to your comments. I'll try again. Have you been getting multiple notifications to replies I make on your journal? I've had a few from you have have been inexplicably broken up over several notifications, and it doesn't seem to be happening with other people.
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branchandroot
Re: Narny narny nar
Date: 2006-04-28 02:23 am (UTC)I suppose I should have said, choice does play a role, rather than simply "we do choose", though my main point in that bit was that we can un-choose.
Our preferences are determined by previous and present circumstance and previous and present conscious choice. While I agree we might not be always be able to easily trace the workings when we are drawn to a choice, we are not helpless to them either. Introspection and self-honesty can help us see the route, however.
I do believe only part of us is conscious, and I believe it is shaped by our conscious actions and conscious reactions to circumstances. The parts that aren't conscious contribute to my conscious mind as much as my skeleton. And in fact, my bones are one of my unconscious bits. They don't speak to me, but I rely on them (in part, let's not forget about muscles and such!) to get me around. If they weren't there anymore, it would be weird and hence my conscious mind would be changed by that. There's no need to mystify it and I think doing so can actually be harmful.
I don't believe in the id/superego/ego model. Hence, we may be at an impasse due to differing beliefs. I simply don't believe in psychoanalysis, so those rules don't really mean much to me. But that's alright.
But speaking of psychology! Maybe this falls under social behavoirists, but I learned about this fellow under the heading of psychology...would you happen to know name of the person who had the theory that children learned to interpret their environment by categorizing things? Such as, child sees animal with four legs and it is a cat. All four legged animals are cats, until something new is presented to further narrow the categories. I have lost his name twice, and it's not an easy thing to google.
Brain fry empathy. :)
Hmm...Livejournal keeps telling me "cannot reply to a nonexistent comment". It's done this before when I've tried to reply to your comments. I'll try again. Have you been getting multiple notifications to replies I make on your journal? I've had a few from you have have been inexplicably broken up over several notifications, and it doesn't seem to be happening with other people.