Action
I exercise personal responsibility in the form of acting when I experience myself as the creator of the respective situation: “I did that well!” (instead of “That worked out well!”), “I want that!” (instead of “That must be done now!”), “I am making myself insecure (instead of “I am insecure!”). Therefore, one experiences oneself as the creator and, therefore, as the potential influencer of a phenomenon. If, however, one experiences something where one does not (yet) recognise oneself as the creator: “This is simply stupid!” instead of “I decide to find this stupid, because it scares me!”, then one will not be able to alter the experience either. One believes that something is simply that way (for example, a personality trait or a characteristic of ‘reality’).
Consequently, this theory takes it seriously that every person carries responsibility for their own actions and this consists of consciously deciding what to influence or what one could influence. Many situations, under which people suffer, emerge from not taking into account possibilities for action which, for example, are accompanied by effort or fears. Therefore, the psychodynamic clarification about which action possibilities someone has excluded, is of high significance.