{"id":21195,"date":"2024-05-08T10:05:52","date_gmt":"2024-05-08T09:05:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kennethsorensen.dk\/?p=21195"},"modified":"2026-05-07T12:54:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T11:54:10","slug":"from-indecision-to-choice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennethsorensen.dk\/en\/from-indecision-to-choice\/","title":{"rendered":"From Indecision To Choice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Inside us, a clever lawyer is winning a bad case with sentimental appeals. Assagioli on making right decisions, the rationalisations we mistake for our own voice, and the harder discipline of choosing from somewhere truer<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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By Roberto Assagioli<\/strong>
Assagioli Archives, Florence, Doc. #24218
Original title: Dell’indecisione alla Scelta<\/em> [1]<\/span><\/span><\/a>
Translated and edited with notes by Jan Kuniholm [2]<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editorial Note<\/strong>
The abstract and contextual subtitle in this online edition have been added by the editor, Kenneth Sorensen, to support readability, navigation, and archival consistency. The original wording has not been altered. Per the Assagioli Archives note, much of this material was later developed in the chapter on “Choice and Decision” in The Act of Will<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Abstract<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In this essay, Roberto Assagioli reframes indecision as a sign of inner evolution rather than weakness. The ordinary person, driven by a single dominant tendency, rarely hesitates; the fully integrated person hears the clear voice of the Soul. Hesitation lives in between, where new values awaken and the old motives no longer suffice. He works carefully through the obstacles to making right decisions: the hidden tendencies that smuggle themselves into our reasoning disguised as virtue, the patient practice of weighing, and the cultivation of spiritual intuition. He closes by naming two false escapes from the responsibility of choice: divination, and asking others to decide for us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Indecision is regarded as a flaw that can seriously impair a person’s effectiveness, and it really is; but on the other hand it also often denotes a fairly advanced stage of higher evolution.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The common man \u2014 who is moved to action by his instincts, passions and personal desires \u2014 is in fact rarely indecisive. There are usually in him one or a few preponderant tendencies which determine and impel him, and with which he identifies himself. Thus we have well-characterized types of people such as the sensual, the ambitious, the stingy, the passionate, etc.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We do sometimes find among ordinary people some who are doubtful and irresolute. But in such cases these are mostly people who are not quite normal; that is, who are \u201cdissociated\u201d or suffering from neuro-psychic symptoms, and particularly from \u201cpsychasthenia.\u201d <\/span><\/span>[3]<\/span><\/span><\/a> In these cases, in which people are suffering torments, there is a special kind of psychic dissociation (but different from that of schizophrenia), and a lowering of “psychic potential,” which results in a diminished “sense of reality,” that is necessary for energetic and purposeful action. Such cases require special understanding and special treatments, which I cannot dwell on here.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, one should not confuse irresolute people with changeable persons, who may even show some similarities on superficial observation, since both groups are ineffective and squander their energies without accomplishing anything. Indeed, changeable people are in a sense the opposite of those who are indecisive, for they thoughtlessly surrender to every internal impulse or external suggestion. On the other hand, people of high inner development are generally firm and resolute, because they have irrevocably committed to spiritual principles and values, and because they hear the clear and imperious voice of their Soul.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n