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"LIVE FREE OR DIE": ROBERT FROST AND THE CHOICE COROLLARY
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David Green
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University of Leeds, UK |
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Abstract
The framing of Kelly’s Choice Corollary has
been subjected to the criticism that it fails the crucial scientific test of
falsifiability. It is hard to imagine any choice that a person might make that
could not retrospectively be explained by some element of its premise. However
personal construct theory, unlike many other therapeutic models in psychology,
does at least attempt to understand how we make choices which strikes me as a
fundamental human concern that should not be overlooked. Kelly proposed that
one of the two criteria that people apply to their choices is whether a particular
course of action will lead to an extension of their construct system by
exploring new areas that are only partially understood. This paper obliquely
examines the attraction of this decision-making principle by conducting a close
reading of Robert Frost’s most celebrated poem “The Road Not Taken” which ends
with the much-quoted lines “Two roads diverged in a wood and I – I – took the
one less travelled by. And that has made all the difference.” This powerful
conclusion appears to celebrate just the qualities of individualism and
adventure enshrined in the choice corollary. However a close reading of the
whole poem indicates that Frost had a much more nuanced sense of how people
make decisions and this subtler analysis is both consistent with a number of
contemporary views of the psychology of choice, and less supportive of Kelly’s
position than you might have expected.
Keywords: Choice
corollary; personal construct theory; Robert Frost
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About the author
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David Green has been a clinical psychologist
in the UK for a long time now. It is about time he retired properly but he
still kindles an enthusiasm for PCP. He was co-author with Richard Butler of
“The Child Within: Taking the Young Person’s Perspective by Applying Personal
Construct Psychology” (2007) and likes to think he may still have the
occasional bright idea.
Contact: d.r.green@leeds.ac.uk
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Green, D. (2019). "Live free or die": Robert Frost and the choice corollary.
Personal Construct Theory & Practice, 16, 16-21
(Retrieved from http://www.pcp-net.org/journal/pctp19/green19.pdf)
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