The Legitimate Guiding Forces of One's Behavior in the World1: Discussion of Generative Enactment: Memories From the Future by Aron and Atlas

Abstract

This paper takes up the issue raised by Aron and Atlas of the transformation of fate into destiny and the reacquisition of a sense of agency in one's future. The paper suggests that past and future need not be framed as binary and examines the way in which struggles, traumas, and impasses of the past can also represent legitimate guiding forces, as Freud put it, for envisioning a different future. The paper illustrates this perspective with a clinical vignette.