As I was being conceived, my young father wrote to his mentor, Carl Rogers, at the University of Chicago: “The aspect of the therapeutic puzzle that currently most occupies my attention centers around those clients who seem to achieve intellectual insight but little significant modification of behavior.“ I have come to think of this as the problem of Insight without Change, and it is arguably the most important issue in psychotherapy as well as in all personal motivation. Why you might have a genuine insight and not act on it is really quite a conundrum, but after considerable reflection I think I understand it.

   You know many people who describe the nature of their own counterproductive behavior or thinking quite clearly, as well as the obvious remedies, but who fail to follow their own advice. Perhaps you have done this yourself. Addictive behavior, at least in its later stages, is the classic demonstration of behavior operating contrary to insight. I have no memory so vivid as of walking into a convenience store twenty-some years ago, telling myself please not to buy any more cigarettes, and watching myself buy that next pack and smoke it. I regard this as unacceptable, as I regard acquiescence to any oppressive regime. In order to escape such circumstances it is necessary to achieve insight by means of careful analysis and serious reflection, and then to act decisively on that insight.

   I have found that in any intimate discourse, like that in effective personal counseling or psychotherapy, there comes a series of insights that are not, at first, able to command the actions that they clearly recommend. Taking insights into action is the bridge from intellectual insight to change. It is only necessary to honor the behavioral requirements of insight in order to realize its benefits. Thanks, Pop!

* http://www.Fergi.com/CharlesFergusonAndCarlRogers/Correspondence.htm