14/10/2023
Personal Responsibility 🤔🧐
Although we may try to deny it, we are ultimately responsible for what happens to us. This idea, borrowed from existential philosophers , is central to the humanistic approach to personality and is illustrated in the way we commonly use the phrase “I have to.” We say, “I have to go to class,” “I have to meet some friends,” “I have to take care of my children,” and so forth. But the truth is that we don’t have to do any of these things. Within limits, there is practically nothing we have to do. Rather, humanistic psychologists argue virtually all our behaviors represent personal choices. People choose to remain in relationships; they do not have to. We choose to act passively; we could decide to act forcefully. We choose to go to work, call our friends, leave a party, or send a Christmas present. We do not have to do any of these things. The price we pay for making some of these choices can be steep, but they are choices nonetheless . Unlike the Freudian or behavioral descriptions of people at the mercy of forces they cannot control, humanistic psychologists see people as active shapers of their own lives, with freedom to change limited only by physical constraints . Clients working with humanistic psychotherapists are often encouraged to accept that they have the power to do or to be whatever they desire. However, this power can be a two-edged sword. When speaking in the abstract, nearly everyone agrees that freedom of choice is a good thing. But when applied at a personal level, accepting that our fate is in our own hands is often quite frightening. Taking responsibility means no more blaming others for your problems caused by the choices you made and no more feeling sorry for yourself. If things are going to change, it is up to you to do the changing.
