Self Analysis 1951 List 6

← Self-Analysis (1951)

List 6

Forgetter Section

It is generally conceded that the opposite to remember is to forget. People can easily become confused between these two things so that they forget what they think they should remember and remember what they think they should forget. The basic and underlying confusion between forget and remember has to do, evidently, with what has been done to the individual on a physical level and what has been forced on him or taken away from him in terms of matter, energy, space and time.

The word forget rests for its definition on the action of leaving something alone. How would a deaf mute teach a child to forget something? He would, of course, have to hide it or consistently take it away from a child until the child went into apathy about it and would have nothing further to do with it. If he did this enough, so that the child would abandon the object, a child could be said to have forgotten the object, since the child, or any person, will do with his thoughts what he has done with the matter, energy, space, time and organisms around him, thoughts being an approximation in symbological form of the physical universe. If a child has been forcefully made to leave alone or abandon objects, energy, spaces and times, later on when he hears the word forget, this means he must abandon a certain thought and if he is in apathy concerning the forced loss of objects or having them taken away from him in childhood, he will proceed to forget them very thoroughly.

It could be said that an individual will occlude as many thoughts as he has had to leave alone or those objects in life. Pain itself is a loss being uniformly accompanied by the loss of cells of the body. Thus the loss of objects, or organisms, by the individual can be misconstrued as being painful. Memories then can be called painful which actually contain no physical pain. But the individual must have had physical pain in order to understand that the loss means pain.

Punishment often accompanies, in child training, the times when the child is supposed to leave something alone. Thus, having to leave something alone is equivalent to being painful. Thus to remember something one is supposed to forget could be erroneously judged to be painful and indeed it is not.

There is a whole philosophy in existence that the best thing to do with unpleasant thoughts is to forget them. This is based securely upon an apathy occasioned by early training. A child when asking for an object will usually at first be cheerful and when he does not procure it will become angry; if he still does not procure it he may cry; and at last goes into apathy concerning it and says that he does not want it. This is one of the derivations of the dianetic tone scale and can be observed by anyone.

These questions, then, are an effort to overcome the times when one has had to leave things alone, when one has had to lose things, and when the loss has been enforced. Thus, when answering these questions, it would be very well to try to find several incidents for each, particularly a very early incident.

Sight, Smell, Touch, Color, Tone, External Motion, Emotion, Loudness. Body Position, Sound, Weight. Personal Motion

Can you recall an incident when:

1. You put something aside because you thought it was dangerous but it wasn’t.
2. You acquired something you were not supposed to have and kept it.
3. You cheerfully got into everything you were supposed to leave alone.
4. You went back to something you had been pulled away from.
5. You found the caution to leave something alone groundless.
6. You cheerfully destroyed an expensive object.
7. You threw away something you wanted.
8. You played with somebody you were supposed to leave alone.
9. You were right in disobeying.
10. You read a forbidden book.
11. You enjoyed having things.
12. You acquired a dangerous object and enjoyed it.
13. You stole some food and were cheerful about it.
14. You ate exactly what you pleased.
15. You fixed some electrical wiring successfully.
16. You played with fire.
17. You successfully drove dangerously.
18. You touched something in spite of all warnings.
19. You got away with it.
20. She walked out on you.
21. You and some friends collected objects.
22. You touched a forbidden thing happily.
23. You got it anyway.
24. You went where you weren’t supposed to and enjoyed it.
25. You owned something that was once forbidden.
26. He walked out on you.
27. You threw away something you had had to accept.
28. You found something which had been hidden from you.
29. You acquired a habit you weren’t supposed to have and enjoyed it.
30. You were right and they were wrong.
31. You enjoyed yourself in a forbidden space.
32. You weren’t supposed to do it and you did.
33. People were glad they had been wrong about you.
34. You recovered something somebody had thrown away.
35. You bullied somebody into giving you something you wanted.
36. You kept on with this processing despite what was said.
37. You persisted in doing something until they agreed you had a right to.
38. You suddenly realized you could do anything you wanted with an object.
39. You did something dangerous and got away with
40. Your group finally got something they had been denied.
41. You found you didn’t have to sit there anymore.
42. You realized you didn’t have to go to school ever again.
43. You realized it was recess.
44. You played hooky.
45. You made something look like something else.
46. You found where an adult had made a mistake.
47. You discovered it wasn’t what they said it was.
48. You found yourself master of all your possessions.
49. You discovered you didn’t necessarily have to go to sleep at night.
50. Although you felt you had to eat it, you left it alone.
51. You ate something that wasn’t good for you and enjoyed it.
52. You let yourself get mad and were glad of it.
53. You suddenly decided you couldn’t be that bad.
54. You opened a forbidden door.
55. You made it go very fast when it should have gone slow.
56. You stole some time.
57. You found some love you didn’t know was there.
58. You abandoned somebody and were glad of it.
59. You refused to leave that time alone.
60. You sneaked off and built a fire.
61. You didn’t realize it could be that good.
62. You found out it wasn’t bad to play.
63. You couldn’t see what was wrong with pleasure.
64. You left off doing something you were supposed to do to do something you enjoyed.
65. You acquired a space you once wouldn’t have had.
66. You indulged yourself thoroughly.
67. They couldn’t keep you back from it.
68. You successfully refused to come to the table.
69. You got burned anyway and didn’t care.
70. You got rid of an object and acquired liberty.

Sight, Smell, Touch, Color, Tone, External Motion, Emotion, Loudness. Body Position, Sound, Weight. Personal Motion