Shy Gal

SHYNESS: A CONCEPTUAL ANALYSIS

“I have missed so many chances to get o know people because I am just too damn shy.” Time for a Change

“shyness, n., bashful, coy, uneasy in company. (Concise Oxford Dictionary)

The question before us is not so much a matter of defining shyness itself but, if it is to be overcome as the poster hopes, the reasons why one happens too be shy in the first place must be unveiled. So why is Shy Gal shy?

Being shy is, of course, a natural state for many during adolescence since it is then that one passes from the unreflective stage of childhood to one in which one is aware of oneself as a separate being, as an individual. One comes to see oneself as one had previously seen other objects but now the object is oneself. However, presumably the poster is not an adolescent so the search for the reasons for shyness must be sought elsewhere than in naturally-occurring biological development. So where are such reasons to be sought?

A first step involves distinguishing the various manifestations of shyness, manifestations which range through a spectrum consisting of a mild neurosis on the one hand to a paralyzing pathological condition on the other, up there with phobias and panic attacks. In the latter case of paralyzing pathological conditions where, in the relevant situation, the mind ceases to function at all, behavioural changes wrought through psychological conditioning might be the only answer.

However, psychology of whatever variety does not deal in reasons but only behaviours, with the consequence that shyness might be suppressed but not explained and this, of course, is our goal. The fact that Shy Gal has signed herself “Time for a Change” indicates that her condition is not pathological but only neurotic and so an appeal to reasons, to her mind should have both conceptual as well as therapeutic efficacy. So where do we go from here?

We go to philosophy, particularly to the philosophy of mind. But of what does the philosophy of mind consist? Pre-eminently the philosophy of mind consists of a consideration of the mind’s structure. Such a consideration of structure entails a consideration of its functioning and it is by way of such functioning that the question of neurotic shyness might be addressed. So what is the structure of the mind?

The mind is not a one-dimensional entity. It is not, as some might suppose, that which passively records the flux of sensory inputs but rather it is an active, questing meaning-making entity which, of course, is not to be reduced to the brain. In brief, the mind is interpretive, teleological and vectorial in nature. In the same way as the poster wants to change, so her mind wants to understand her shyness and so overcome the condition. But how is this to be done?

When attending to the object of explicit attention the mind is not one-dimensional but rather bi-dimensional. Focusing on the object of explicit attention, in this case Shy Gal’s shyness, necessarily entails the mind’s reliance on a realm of tacit awareness by virtue of which the object of explicit attention makes sense, that by which the object of explicit attention is comprehensible. All feats of conscious awareness necessarily possess this bi-dimensional quality, a tacit-focal structure in terms of which meaning is discovered. In other words, Shy Gal must understand that of which her shyness consists. Like this comment, she must engage in a conceptual analysis of her shyness.

Note the word “discovered.” The mind does not construct
meaning out of whole cloth – that would be a hallucination – but rather engages reality as it is seen to exist. Of course, there is room for error. Not all comprehensive understandings are error-free but – and this is important – it is only by the use of the mind that the human being herself comes into existence, comes into being. Further, in the same way that acts of comprehensive understanding are not error-free, so there exists no impersonal recipe for their successful exercise. All such acts, by their nature, are personal and resist any and all impersonal formulations.

So there we are. Shy Gal’s path is clear. By means of conceptual analysis she must engage her shyness focally while relying tacitly on her unspoken but very real subsidiary awareness in which her shyness is situated, in which it is contextualized. Only then will she understand and thereby overcome her condition rather than being the passive plaything of some superficial behavioural conditioning.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

A pleasure as always.

Cheerio!