I’m having a hard time remembering rationalizing bad decisions, but I’m having an easy time remembering rationalizing bad outcomes. That may be a useful dichotomy to explore.
I think this general phenomenon may have something to do with verbal thinking as suggested below, but I’m not sure that applies to my case. I think I came to terms with my id getting to make a lot of my decisions- and so the primary stated justification is something like “I desire to relax now” rather than “I deserve to relax now,” and the superego is just outvoted rather than placated. (The first strikes me as a rationale, and the second strikes me as a rationalization.)
It may be valuable to ask them about those concepts (or an updated version of them; I like saying id and superego because most people know what they mean but I also get the impression they’re fairly outdated). When they say “I knew the cookie was bad for me but I felt like eating it,” explore the difference between “knew” and “felt.” Maybe rationalizers have a verbal id and others don’t?
I’m having a hard time remembering rationalizing bad decisions, but I’m having an easy time remembering rationalizing bad outcomes. That may be a useful dichotomy to explore.
I think this general phenomenon may have something to do with verbal thinking as suggested below, but I’m not sure that applies to my case. I think I came to terms with my id getting to make a lot of my decisions- and so the primary stated justification is something like “I desire to relax now” rather than “I deserve to relax now,” and the superego is just outvoted rather than placated. (The first strikes me as a rationale, and the second strikes me as a rationalization.)
It may be valuable to ask them about those concepts (or an updated version of them; I like saying id and superego because most people know what they mean but I also get the impression they’re fairly outdated). When they say “I knew the cookie was bad for me but I felt like eating it,” explore the difference between “knew” and “felt.” Maybe rationalizers have a verbal id and others don’t?