Conceptual analysis examines unwanted attitudes experienced as alien to the self in human psychology, indicating how internalized external norms conflict with personal values.
Sometimes it seems that a feeling or attitude which we have is in some way alien to us. For example, one may disapprove of oneself having uncomfortable feelings about people of a particular class or group. We may say things like ‘T can’t help having these feelings about X, but they are not feelings I'want to have’. Or, ‘I can’t help getting upset about this, but I don’t want to be that sort of person.”
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Campbell Purton (2026) studied this question.
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