Can we change attitude?

Can we change attitude?

Solitude is a valuable resource when changes of mental attitude are required-'solitude can be as therapeutic as emotional support from a friend'.

Our way of thinking about life and ourselves is so habitual that it takes time and effort to change attitudes-people find it difficult to make changes in attitude but solitude and perhaps changes in environment facilitate changes in attitude because habit is fortified by external environment-religion is well aware of these facts-only through experience of change in environment can one know if such change will facilitate change in attitude-'one needs not just solitude but one needs to be able to sink roots into some replenishing philosophy also'.

Solitude is not to subject oneself to sensor deprivation, which can lead to hallucinations. One needs the stimulation of the senses and the intellect.

Imagination-solitude can facilitate the growth of imagination-imagination has given humans flexibility but has robbed her of contentment-our non-human ancestors are governed by pre-programmed patterns-- these preprogrammed patterns have inhibited growth when the environment changes-humans are governed primarily by learning and transmission of culture from generation to generation and is thus more able to adapt-'for humans so little is predetermined by nature and so much is dependent upon learning'-happiness, the contentment with the status quo is only a fleeting feeling-'divine discontent' is the gift of our nature that brings moments of ecstasy and a life time of discontent-the present is such a fleeting part of our reality that we are almost always in the past or the future.

I think that a regular dose of solitude is very important for everyone, young and old. Does that make sense to you? I think that each individual needs to make radical adjustments in their attitude toward learning when school dazes are over. Solitude might be helpful in facilitating such adjustments.

This stuff comes from reading 'Solitude: A Return to the Self' by Anthony Storr. Most of this is snatches of text that is sometimes a paraphrase and sometimes a quotation

Attitude is easy to change, most of the time, temporarily.

But like you said, to make it more permanent is a process of overcoming reactionary conditioning.

But once you have the base to build on, of having the power, will, and desire to change it, you catch yourself with every reaction, realise that isn't what you want, and again choose to change it.

Sooner or later it will stick if you are diligent.

But it must be done in the present which is as you mentioned often fleeting, this to must change, for this is where your power of will and intention exists, now.

'Man cannot evolve beyond his character'-Ernest Becker

Becker makes the point that the humanization process is one wherein the individual exchanges the natural organismic propensity for a mysterious symbolic dictation. The child in its very essential formative age is faced with denying that which 'comes naturally' for what are symbolic dictates that are far beyond its ability for comprehension. The child's formation of character is dictated by its need to be somebody in the symbolic world.

The child continual loses battles that s/he cannot comprehend. John Dewey learned long ago that 'the child continually loses battles he does not understand...we earn our early self-esteem not actively but in large part passively, by having our action blocked and re-oriented to the parents pleasure.'

In the very essential formative years the child develops character traits that in many cases remain with that individual for the rest of their life.

What is character? Character is the network of habits that permeate all the intentional acts of an individual.

I am not using the word habit in the way we often do, as a technical ability existing apart from our wishes. These habits are an intimate and fundamental part of our selves. They are representations of our will. They rule our will, working in a coordinated way they dominate our way of acting. These habits are the results of repeated, intelligently controlled, actions.

Habits also control the formation of ideas as well as physical actions. We cannot perform a correct action or a correct idea without having already formed correct habits. 'Reason pure of all influence from prior habit is a fiction.' 'The medium of habit filters all material that reaches our perception and thought.' 'Immediate, seemingly instinctive, feeling of the direction and end of various lines of behavior is in reality the feeling of habits working below direct consciousness.' 'Habit means special sensitiveness or accessibility to certain classes of stimuli, standing predilections and aversions, rather than bare recurrence of specific acts. It means will.'

Britannica specifies that attitude is 'a predisposition to classify objects and events and to react to them with some degree of evaluative consistency.'

If I consult my inner self I cannot focus upon an attitude but can infer such an attitude based on behavior. If I wish to become conscious of my intuition I can through observation of behavior describe the attitude, which, in turn, allows me to ascertain the nature of my intuition.

When a mother tells her son 'you must change your attitude'. The son cannot change the attitude directly but the son must change his intuition from which the inferred attitude emanates. This does become a bit convoluted but in essence when we wish to change an attitude we are saying that our intuition must be modified. We can modify intuition only through habit directed by our will.

'Were it not for the continued operation of all habits in every act, no such thing as character would exist. There would be simply a bundle, an untied bundle at that, of isolated acts. Character is the interpenetrating of habits. If each habit in an insulated compartment and operated without affecting or being affected by others, character would not exist. That is conduct would lack unity being only juxtaposition of disconnected reactions to separated situations. But since environments overlap, since situations are continuous and those remote from one another contain like elements, a continuous modification of habits by one another is constantly going on.'

My understanding of character and the quotations concerning the nature of character are taken from 'Habits and Will' by John Dewey

With everything that we have to deal with on a day to day basis we start coming to ourselves through veils. Solitude, yep it helps us lift those veils and look to ourselves in the eyes. I'm not sure about changing attitudes... i think once you reach your core- your real face, voice- you will realize that you can become anything you need to become...one truth for all..."I am everyone in history" (?)