lilies
The Living Force
Maybe Gurdjieff mentioned Illeism? I might have read about it in one of the books about The Work. As an instinctive healing measure I began using it many years ago, here in the forum, to get my life situation in perspective. Probably I was chastising myself using Illeism. IIRC that's why, I think, it was Atreides, who remarked that "Uh, stop talking about yourself in the third person, man, reading it is so weird!"
Then many years later I encounter this article on Sott:
Illeism: New research finds this ancient rhetorical trick leads to wiser reasoning
Then many years later I encounter this article on Sott:
Illeism: New research finds this ancient rhetorical trick leads to wiser reasoning
Socrates famously declared that "the unexamined life is not worth living" and that "knowing thyself" was the path to true wisdom. But is there a right and a wrong way to go about such self-reflection?
Simple rumination - the process of churning your concerns around in your head - isn't the answer. It's likely to cause you to become stuck in the rut of your own thoughts and immersed in the emotions that might be leading you astray. Certainly, research has shown that people who are prone to rumination also often suffer from impaired decision-making under pressure and are at substantially increased risk of depression.
Instead, the scientific research suggests that you should adopt an ancient rhetorical method favoured by the likes of Julius Caesar and known as "illeism" - or speaking about yourself in the third person (the term was coined by Samuel Taylor Coleridge from the Latin ille meaning "he, that"). If I was considering an argument that I'd had with a friend, for instance, I may start by silently thinking to myself "David felt frustrated that..." The idea is that this small change in perspective can clear your emotional fog, allowing you to see past your biases.