Abstract
Instead of considering procrastination as a unitary construct we argue that it takes different forms and has multiple explanations and determinants. While it is fair to consider procrastination a cognitive focusing issue, we posit that the motivational sources for this vary depending on where someone can be located with regard to the “existential” developmental positions that have been explicated over many years by Object Relations clinical theorists: the autistic-contiguous, paranoid-schizoid, depressive, and transcendental. These positions generate different understandings of what motivates procrastination and in turn, effects the interventions we offer. We note both clinical and commonplace examples.
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Notes
Jessica Benjamins (2004) thinking about thirdness and the different stances that we take with regard to the other’s subjectivity is relevant here. Thus, the relationship between self and other can be understood along the lines of different types of relationships to the third (third in one; one in the third and so forth). Where our thinking diverges from hers is in our more explicit existential focus and in how we relate emerging subjectivity to developmental positions. In this respect, though there are of course similarities, there are also important benefits to articulating ones thinking about subjectivity, both for oneself and a community.
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Webb, R.E., Rosenbaum, P.J. The Varieties of Procrastination: with Different Existential Positions Different Reasons for it. Integr. psych. behav. 53, 525–540 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-018-9467-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-018-9467-1