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“Indecision and internalized authority figures” by Kaj_Sotala


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A trauma book I was reading had an interesting claim that indecision is often because the person looks for the approval of an internalized authority figure (the writer is a Jungian therapist so attributed it to looking for the approval of an internalized parent, but I think it can be broader) but is unable to predict what action they would approve of.

I feel like that has some intuitive truth to it, in that when I don’t care about anyone's opinion (or if nobody ever finds out) then it's much easier to just pick one action and commit to it even if it might go badly. But one of the main reasons why I might struggle with that is if I fear that anyone would judge me for doing things incorrectly.

Or it can be a conflict between different internalized authority figures. “If I do this then [...]

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First published:

July 6th, 2024

Source:

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/7dW9dHdcj5XHFxui5/indecision-and-internalized-authority-figures

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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