Self Analysis 1951 List 9

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List 9

Valences

You may have noticed, as you were perceiving things which have occurred in the past, that you were sometimes apparently inside your own body and sometimes may have been observing yourself. There are people who are never out of their own body in recall and people who are never in it. There are many valences in everyone. By a valence is meant an actual or a shadow personality. One’s own valence is his actual personality. Be assured, however, he can get into a confusion with other bodies and persons. If one is in one’s own valence when he is recalling things, he sees what he has seen just as though he was looking at it again with his own eyes. This is a very desirable condition of affairs. The symptom of being out of one’s own valence and in a shadow valence might be said to mean that one finds his own body too dangerous to occupy in thought. Being out of valence makes perceptions hard to contact in recall. You will find, as you continue these lists, repeating each one over and over, that it becomes easier and easier to see things again out of one’s own eyes.

In the following list of questions and in any recall, one should make an effort to take the viewpoint of himself, which is to say, to see the scene and get the perceptions as he himself got them at the time.

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

Can you recall a time when:

1. You watched a person you didn’t like doing something you liked to do.
2. You saw a person you liked doing something you didn’t like to do.
3. You watched a person you liked doing something you liked to do.
4. You saw a person you disliked doing something you disliked to do.
5. You noticed somebody wearing something you wore.
6. You found somebody using a mannerism you used.
7. You adopted a mannerism.
8. You found yourself and a dog being treated alike.
9. You made faces at yourself in the mirror.
10. You decided to be completely different from a person.
11. You discovered you were like an object.
12. You were classified with an unfavourable person.
13. You were classified with a favorable person.
14. You found yourself dressed like many others.
15. You found you were different from somebody, after all.
16. You noticed the difference between yourself and others.
17. You ate with somebody you liked.
18. You met a person who reminded you of another and noticed the difference between them.
19. You walked in step with somebody you liked.
20. You rode with somebody you admired.
21. You had to take the same position as somebody else.
22. You played a game with people you liked.
23. You found yourself doing something because somebody in your early youth did it.
24. You found yourself refusing to do something because somebody in your early youth did it. Note that the word like is used to mean admire or feel affection for and also to be similar to. The effort of valences could be said to mean trying to be like one’s friends and unlike one’s enemies. Unfortunately in life one often has comparisons and similarities between himself and his enemies and has dissimilarities pointed out between himself and his friends. The adjustment of this is desirable so that one feels free to follow through any motion or action of any human being without associating the motion or action with either friend or enemy.

As an effort to straighten out one’s associations and dis- associations regarding people, the following questions are appended as the second part of List 9.

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

Recall:

1. A person who looks like you.
2. A person who has physical troubles similar to yours.
3. A person from whom you got a particular mannerism.
4. A person who reminds you of an animal you knew.
5. A person who compared you unfavorably to unfavorable persons.
6. A person who compared you favorably to favorable persons.
7. Two people whom you had confused with each other.
8. A person you knew long ago like a person you are living with.
9. A person whom you knew earlier who reminds you of a person with whom you are now connected.
10. Who you are most like? Who said so ?
11. Who used to be afraid of sentiment ?
12. Who didn’t like to eat?
13. Who was never supposed to amount to anything?
14. Who associated with people too much?
15. Who made life miserable for everybody?
16. Who had bad manners?
17. Who did you know earlier that had the pain that bothers you?
18. Who would you most want to be like ?
19. Who would you most hate to be like ?
20. Who held that you amounted to nothing?
21. Who tried to keep you in line ?
22. Who flattered you?
23. Who fed you?

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