Beyond My Control

Anybody who's seen 'Dangerous Liaisons' (and I trust that's most of you) will remember those words, repeated over and over, by a man dealing (badly) with an internal conflict. He's torn between two choices, either of which would cost him more than he can face, and so the only way he can escape the weight of that decision is to convince himself that he has no choice - that he is merely the instrument of someone else's will. I suppose this is the same thing as Milgram's 'agentic state'.

( And the problem with that is... )