成为一个个体
鉴于我们已经讨论的情况，我们不再认为个体生下来就这样，而是后天获得的——，或者更精确的描述，是赢来的。个人特征在现实中形成，无法避免被其他人和环境的影响。个人特征的本质是警觉。下面这些导则可以帮助你获得它:
1.你对任何人，问题，或者处境的第一个反应都是尝试性的。不管它有多吸引人，除非你仔细核实过，否则不要接受它。
2.搞清楚你为什么做出这个反应。思考下你是否从其他人那里借鉴了这个做法——父母还是朋友，或者名人、电视里的虚构人物。如果可能，确定什么特殊经验影响你按照这个做法去做。
3.想想对于这些人，问题，处境，其它你可能会有的反应。
4.问自己，是否还有比你最初更加恰当的反应？当你回答时，要排除你制约条件的影响。
确保你要成为一个真正的独立个体，而不是仅仅宣称要成为独立个体，在你阅读这本书的时候应用这些规则，在你每天的生活中也是一样。
练习
注意:提升你的思考（和写作）技巧的最好的方法之一是记录你的经历的观察，问题和想法，如果时间许可，反思你所记录的——想一想所观察到东西的应用和意义，回答那些问题，详细阐述那些想法（并且，合适的时候质疑它们），记录下你的洞见。一本便宜的装订笔记本或活页笔记本就可以达到这个目的。一个好的步骤是在页面的左边记录下你最初的观察，问题和想法。在右边留出空白，之后可以填写你的分析和评论。这个反省过程的价值巨大，即使你的导师没有将它规定为课程固有的一部分，你也要考虑保持这样的习惯。
1.做一次简短的这章节里描述过的注意力转移研究。记录一个为时半小时的节目。然后重放两次，第一次记录节目中商业广告之外的注意力转移次数，第二次只记录广告中注意力转移次数。完成这个必须的计数后，准备在课室里分享。
2.反思你在练习1.中的发现，写下几段文字讨论你所的发现中关于教育，商业，和家庭生活的含义。
3.很多人乐于为设计精良的每加仑饮用水支付6-7美元。却为不得不支付每加仑3美元的汽油而不停地抱怨。你在这章节阅读到的哪些内容能帮助你理解为什么会这样？
4.想象一下，如果弗兰克尔强调自我超越以及个人责任的理论，而不是马斯洛强调自我实现理论和流行文化强调自尊的理论在过去的五十年占据主导地位，美国会有什么不同。尽可能将我们社会今天可能会有的不同列举出来，并对每一个的优点和缺点进行评论。准备在课室讨论时解释你的观点。
观看下面的音乐频道至少一个小时——（MTV, VH1, CMT, BET）——分析视频是如何刻画男人和女人的。注意明显的细节。比如，观察是否男人相对女人被描述成有权力的角色，女人被叙述成男人欲望的对象。注意传递了什么态度和价值观。（你可能要边看边记录，这样你可以评论你所看到，暂停画面做更细致的分析，为之后的引用或者课堂检视和讨论保留你的观察记录。）
6.假设你问你的朋友，“你是如何获得你特有的认同因素——你的意见、偏好和态度？”然后，假设你的朋友这样回答，“我是独立的，没有人能够影响我，我自己决定我的事情，我选择了适合我的意见，偏好和态度。”你将怎样利用你在这章节里学到的东西向你的朋友解释？
问你自己同样的问题，我是谁？对这个问题写下10个答案，每个单独写在不同的纸条上。使用这一章前三节的内容帮助你组织你的答案。按照他们对你的重要程度将纸条排序。然后解释一下顺序——也就是说，哪一个你的自我描述对你是最重要的，为什么？
8.识别出曾经塑造了你的正面和负面影响。确定包括特殊和普通的因素、微妙和明显的因素，。哪一个曾经对你有最大的影响？尽可能准确地解释。
9.注意你对下列每个陈述的第一反应。然后运用本章提供的4个导则实现个性化。
a.聘请卫生保健工作人员应该要做艾滋病检测。
b.应该禁止孩子的选美竞赛和智力竞赛。
c.像3k党（Ku Klux Klan）这样的极端组织，应该允许在公共场所举行集会，或者讨论在城市街道上进行游行的可行性。
d. 所有的学生都要修一年级的作文课。
e.高中和大学的运动员要做合成代谢类固醇使用的检测
f.应该在高中生物课上教授创造论
g.一夫多妻制应该合法化。
h. 投票的年龄应该降低到16岁。
i.监狱系统应该更多的强调对犯人的惩罚而不是改过自新。
j.应该要求医生和诊所在给未成年人进行节育手术或者辅助流产的时候，告诉未成年人的父母。
k. 如果一个男人的妻子赚的钱比他多，男人的自尊会严重受到伤害。
l. 女人喜欢依靠男人。
10.集体讨论练习：运用这个章节关于发展个人特质的4个导则，和2-3个同学讨论第9个练习中的若干个陈述。准备在班上分享你们团队的观点。
意见的差异
下面的段落里总结了一个重要的意见分歧。读完这个陈述后，使用图书馆和（或者）互联网，找到知识渊博的人关于这个问题说过什么。确保涵盖了这个观点的全部。然后评论每一个说法有力和无力的地方。如果你总结出其中一个是完全正确的，其他都是错误的，解释为什么你得到这个结论。如果，当然更加可能如此，你发现一个观点比其他的更加具有洞见，但是其他观点的都有意义，通过组合所有观点的洞见创建你的想法，并且解释为什么这个观点是最合理的。按照你导师的规定，通过口头报告或者书面文章展示你的回复。
被俘虏的恐怖分子应该上军事法庭或者刑事法庭？当美国决定利用古巴关塔那摩湾的军事基地拘留在伊拉克战争中被俘的人员，很多人抗议这个决定。有些人争论，根据美国宪法保障每个被指控有罪人的权利，被俘虏的人应该当作普通罪犯而不是战争犯处理。其他人认为要将他们认定为战争犯，并按照1949年的日内瓦公约处置他们。支持政府决定的人反对这两种意见，声称被俘虏的恐怖分子既不是普通罪犯也不是士兵，而是“非法武装分子，”还说，任何其他的判定都会增加美国的负担，这会使得对恐怖主义的斗争更加困难，因而威胁到国家安全。
使用“被俘虏恐怖分子身份”这个短语在google上搜索，开始你的分析。
原文：
Becoming an Individual
In light of what we have discussed, we should regard individuality not as something we are born with but rather as something acquired—or, more precisely, earned. Individuality begins in the realization that it is impossible to escape being influenced by other people and by circumstance. The essence of individuality is vigilance. The following guidelines will help you achieve this:
Treat your first reaction to any person, issue, or situation as tentative. No matter how appealing it may be, refuse to embrace it until you have examined it.
Decide why you reacted as you did. Consider whether you borrowed the reaction from someone else—a parent or friend, perhaps, or a celebrity or fictional character on television. If possible, determine what specific experiences conditioned you to react this way.
Think of other possible reactions you might have had to the person, issue, or situation.
Ask yourself whether one of the other reactions is more appropriate than your first reaction. And when you answer, resist the influence of your conditioning.
To ensure that you will really be an individual and not merely claim to be one, apply these guidelines throughout your work in this book, as well as in your everyday life.
Applications
Note: One of the best ways to develop your thinking (and writing) skills is to record your observations, questions, and ideas in a journal and then, as time permits, to reflect on what you have recorded—considering the meaning and application of the observations, answering the questions, elaborating on the ideas (and, where appropriate, challenging them), and recording your insights. An inexpensive bound notebook or spiral notebook will serve the purpose. A good approach is to record your initial observations, questions, and ideas on the left side of the page, leaving the right side blank for your later analysis and commentary. The value of this reflective process is so great that you should consider keeping such a journal even if your instructor does not make it a formal part of the course.
Do a brief study of attention shifts such as the one described in the chapter. Record a half-hour show. Then play the show back twice, the first time counting the number of shifts within the program, excluding commercials, and the second time counting only those within commercials. Complete the necessary arithmetic and be prepared to share your results in class.
Reflect on your findings in application 1. Write several paragraphs discussing the implications of those findings for education, business, and family life.
Many people cheerfully pay $6 or $7 a gallon for designer drinking water but moan and groan when they have to pay $3 a gallon for gasoline. Does anything you read in this chapter help you understand why this is so?
Imagine how different America might be if Frankl’s emphasis on self-transcendence and personal responsibility, rather than Maslow’s emphasis on self-actualization and popular culture’s emphasis on self-esteem, had been dominant for the past fifty years. List as many ways as you can in which our society might be different today and comment on whether each would be beneficial or harmful. Be prepared to explain your views in class discussion.
Watch one of the music video channels—MTV, VH1, CMT, BET— for at least an hour. Analyze how men and women are depicted in the videos. Note significant details. For example, observe whether men are depicted in power roles more than women and whether women are portrayed as objects of male desire. Decide what attitudes and values are conveyed. (You might want to record as you are watching so that you can review what you have seen, freeze significant frames for closer analysis, and keep your observations for later reference or class viewing and discussion.)
Suppose you asked a friend, “How did you acquire your particular identity—your sentiments and preferences and attitudes?” Then suppose the friend responded, “I’m an individual. No one else influences me. I do my own thing, and I select the sentiments and preferences and attitudes that suit me.” How would you explain to your friend what you learned in this chapter?
Ask yourself the question, Who am I? Write down ten answers to this question, each on a separate slip of paper. Use the first three paragraphs of this chapter to help you frame your answers. Arrange the pieces of paper in order of their importance to you. Then explain the arrangement—that is, which self-descriptions are most important to you, and why?
Identify the various positive and negative influences that have shaped you. Be sure to include the particular as well as the general and the subtle as well as the obvious influences. Which of those influences have had the greatest effect on you? Explain the effects as precisely as you can.
Note your immediate reaction to each of the following statements. Then apply the four guidelines given in this chapter for achieving individuality.
a. Health care workers should be required to be tested for HIV/AIDS.
b. Beauty contests and talent competitions for children should be banned.
c. Extremist groups like the Ku Klux Klan should be allowed to hold rallies on public property or be issued permits to hold parades on city streets.
d. Freshman composition should be a required course for all students.
e. High school and college athletes should be tested for anabolic steroid use.
f. Creationism should be taught in high school biology classes.
g. Polygamy should be legalized.
h. The voting age should be lowered to sixteen.
i. The prison system should give greater emphasis to the punishment of inmates than to their rehabilitation.
j. Doctors and clinics should be required to notify parents of minors when they prescribe birth control devices or facilitate abortions for the minors.
k. A man’s self-esteem is severely injured if his wife makes more money than he makes.
l. Women like being dependent on men.
- Group discussion exercise: Discuss several of the statements in application 9 with two or three of your classmates, applying the four guidelines presented in this chapter for developing individuality. Be prepared to share your group’s ideas with the class.
A Difference of Opinion
The following passage summarizes an important difference of opinion. After reading the statement, use the library and/or the Internet and find what knowledgeable people have said about the issue. Be sure to cover the entire range of views. Then assess the strengths and weaknesses of each. If you conclude that one view is entirely correct and the others are mistaken, explain how you reached that conclusion. If, as is more likely, you find that one view is more insightful than the others but that they all make some valid points, construct a view of your own that combines insights from all views and explain why that view is the most reasonable of all. Present your response in a composition or an oral report, as your instructor specifies.
Should captured terrorists be tried in military or criminal courts? When the United States decided to use the military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to detain individuals captured on the battlefield in the Iraq war, many people protested the decision. Some argued that captured individuals should be considered criminals rather than prisoners of war and accorded the rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution to all people accused of crimes. Others argued for classifying the individuals as prisoners of war and treating them as specified in the Geneva Conventions of 1949. Supporters of the government’s decision reject both arguments, contending that captured terrorists are neither criminals nor soldiers but “unlawful combatants,” adding that any other designation would impose burdens on the United States that would make it difficult to fight terrorism and thereby threaten national security.
Begin your analysis by conducting a Google search using the term “status captured terrorists.”