metonymy4u

In the search for behavioral change we have several options. One of these many is to identify the response classes exemplified by our behaviors, thereby understanding their sources and influences. Another option is simply to behave otherly. The first of these approaches makes use of what Bergson called our awareness of quantity. Quantitative heuristics teach an awareness of common attributes with which we group token events into typical classes. The second approach makes use of what he called our idea of quality, which is more simply just an awareness of change.

In the first case we are treating our experiences as what Heidegger would have called a “standing reserve,”– a theoretically inexhaustible and anonymous “stuff” that technology can shape how we will. In the second case we are engaging what he called “Gelassenheit,” or “letting go.” In the first case we try to retrieve what created us; in the second we just create and create and create.

Modern behavior therapy uses the first to get to the second. Moreover, we realize that the product of therapy is a koan: rather than producing an additional piece of knowledge, it teaches a new way of being.