Awareness
Personal responsibility always goes hand in hand with awareness. It must be distinguished from the concept of consciousness. Awareness here means that I not only know something (i.e. think), but that I experience it sensitively/affectively inside myself. An old German word for this is ‘Gewahrsein’ (English equivalent might be ‘non-selective perception’). Only when I ‘notice’ holistically what and how I am, can I feel responsible for that which I do, feel and intend. Therefore, every limitation of awareness always goes hand in hand with a loss of personal responsibility. For example: one knows that when one is afraid that it is fear (and not frustrated rage), where it comes from (fear of mistakes), how it feels (sweating, tightness), where one feels it (throat and stomach) and how one wishes to deal with it.