Unlearning the Preventitive Trauma of Proactivity
I love it when the history of something reveals why it is problematic.
pro•ac•tive or pro-ac•tive (pr½-²k“t¹v) adj. Acting in advance to deal with an expected difficulty; anticipatory: not reactive, but proactive steps to combat terrorism. --pro•ac“tion n. --pro•ac“tive•ly adv.
BUT
http://www.word-detective.com/020501.html suggests that "Proactive" has actually been around since the 1930s as a technical term in psychology, denoting a trauma or complex stemming from an earlier occurrence ("pro" being a Latin prefix meaning, in this case, "before") that makes learning difficult. Our modern "proactive," however, is a completely different word, formed from "pro" in the sense of "forward" attached to the "active" from "reactive." This management-ese "proactive" thus carries the sense of "pushing forward" and first appeared around 1971.
What trauma or complex stemming from an earlier occurrence makes learning difficult such that the meaning of the word itself must be shifted into being the cure for its own dilemma?
It is not a completely different word. Psychologically it contains and illustrates its own origin and consequence - original trauma entirely redefined through use to support the fantasy (and not one without usefulness) that preemption can avoid future trauma. What is not useful is the complete loss in current usage of the traumatic context of the original meaning. Now it is simply management-ese for pushing forward, still carrying the hidden reality of trauma unconsciously.
This needs images, additional examples of applications, and a longer paper. Hmmm....
| posted by Unknown @ 8/28/2004 09:10:00 PM
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I love it when the history of something reveals why it is problematic.
pro•ac•tive or pro-ac•tive (pr½-²k“t¹v) adj. Acting in advance to deal with an expected difficulty; anticipatory: not reactive, but proactive steps to combat terrorism. --pro•ac“tion n. --pro•ac“tive•ly adv.
BUT
http://www.word-detective.com/020501.html suggests that "Proactive" has actually been around since the 1930s as a technical term in psychology, denoting a trauma or complex stemming from an earlier occurrence ("pro" being a Latin prefix meaning, in this case, "before") that makes learning difficult. Our modern "proactive," however, is a completely different word, formed from "pro" in the sense of "forward" attached to the "active" from "reactive." This management-ese "proactive" thus carries the sense of "pushing forward" and first appeared around 1971.
What trauma or complex stemming from an earlier occurrence makes learning difficult such that the meaning of the word itself must be shifted into being the cure for its own dilemma?
It is not a completely different word. Psychologically it contains and illustrates its own origin and consequence - original trauma entirely redefined through use to support the fantasy (and not one without usefulness) that preemption can avoid future trauma. What is not useful is the complete loss in current usage of the traumatic context of the original meaning. Now it is simply management-ese for pushing forward, still carrying the hidden reality of trauma unconsciously.
This needs images, additional examples of applications, and a longer paper. Hmmm....
| posted by Unknown @ 8/28/2004 09:10:00 PM
