We constantly describe ourselves and others in terms of stable traits: characteristics we “have” and that are more or less fixed. This static conception of the human offers a comfortable sense of order, but it does not hold up. The Dynamic Human draws together insights from personality psychology, motivation science, complexity theory, and neuroscience to show what can take its place. At its core is the concept of enablement: context does not cause our functioning, it opens or closes possibilities. Central to the argument is the door-opener: a condition, action, or experience that opens a space of possibilities which was previously closed. What we take to be fixed traits is often the end point of a cumulative process we can no longer see.
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