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Sam Flesher's picture

Your own free will.

I think everyone has agency to varying extents, but at certain points, not everyone can actualize. Perhaps, therapy (talk, medications…) is one way to restore agency or bring it to the fore…

Hey
Above I reference your comment. First not all psychologists believe in agency. Stunningly most don't. I emphatically do. I will take that a step further. One f the main fountains of agency in humans is the frontal lobe.
Get a frontal lobe tumor and you are likely to get frontal lobe sybdrome which looks a lot like a loss of agency. This is not surprising because the dorso lateral prefrontal cortex is responsible for "Willed Behaviors." (Ironically the same psychologist who say that there is no such thing as free will know this full well and say free will is just an illusion." I know this very well. I had a frontal lobe tumor and frontal lobe syndrome. Ask my son Adi. He would say to me.

"Get up off the sofa and go to bed." and I would answer "I am getting up." and he would say "But that is what you said 45 minutes ago." I just could not will myself to pull the trigger and act.

Not surprisingly, schizophenia is also a disorder of free will. There are of course technical terms for this like "Impoverished thought", "Impoverished" speech", "anhendonia" and "amotivation." Delusions are not surpisingly focused on free will "Someone is controlling my thoughts" That is a common delusion. I my considered clinical judgement restoring that agency is a prime objective. Without that, life is not much fun and the stories you tell tend to be kind either very dull or really terrifying.

Both somatic and talk therapies ought to take that as a first target. Some do. There are other options than talk or drugs.

This discussion has inspired a song. I have only a verse and a chorus.
Some times it is easier to make a point in song than in prose.

Warm regards
Sam Flesher
Pittsburgh

Your Own Free Will
Words and Music by Sam Flesher

I take a step in your direction
Slowly you retreat
So I make a course correction
Quicly you complain

That's a dance for every season
The steps will all repeat.
Do we dance for some good reason
Or do we dance in vain

Here is my advice to you
Whatever you decide to do
Do it of your own free will.

Do it of your own free will
Do it of your own free will
You are not a robot
You ain't got forever
The your penny in the pot
Do it of you own free will
And when you're done
You'll be free.

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