Enclothed Cognition

Autist Realizes Aestethics is Important

Feb 27, 2024

Internal Family Systems (IFS) is a therapeutic practice where you use social reasoning to make sense of mental processes. This approach conceptualizes the mind as composed of multiple sub-personalities or "parts," each with its own personalities, desires and habits.

At a burn,1 I was talking about IFS with a guy. We were talking about how we used IFS to reason about inner processes. During the conversation, he mentioned that he has a part called “Cesar”. Cesar is into parties, indulgence, dancing and hedonism.

Later that night, the guy walks into the room, wearing a Roman-style gold-leaf laurel. I was amazed! He was embodying Cesar, his partying part! What a way to get in the mood!

Create a widescreen image of a man dressed in a stylish, modern outfit at a party. The man has a trendy hairstyle, similar to the one in the provided image, with short sides and a longer top. He's wearing a laurel wreath made of golden leaves, suggesting a festive or celebratory occasion. The party setting is indoors, with warm ambient lighting and soft bokeh effect in the background to give a sense of depth and a lively atmosphere. There are subtle hints of decorations like strings of lights or bunting in the background. The man is standing in a relaxed pose, holding a drink, and he has a confident, cheerful expression on his face.

Enclothed Cognition

This reminds me of the psychological concept “Enclothed Cognition”. Studies show that people’s cognition is affected by the cultural significance of the clothing they wear. White lab clothes increase attention, especially if people are told that they are doctor’s clothing.

If it’s possible to use culturally significant clothing to affect cognition, I’m sure it’s possible to use personally significant clothing to do the same. By dressing up as Cesar, you activate the Cesar-part, going into party mindset. This way, IFS-style parts might serve as “bridges” between aesthetics and mental states.

I have been writing about consciously shifting mental states, going into states like cosiness and dominance depending on situational needs. Using aesthetics to shift into mental states seems like an extension of this practice. I want to create a palette of different mind states, with aesthetic expressions that allow me to embody each state.

I may be late to the game

I’m pretty sure some (most?) people already do this. Have I reinvented “dressing up”? People dress up in formal clothing to help them focus at work. People dress up in fancy clothing to get ready for partying. Many kink clubs disallow “street-clothes”, enforcing mood-supporting clothing.

Most people have situationally-adapted sub-personalities, with accompanying aesthetic expressions. Kink-club leather beast is different to corporate suit-wearer, even if the personas both share the same body.

Most people likely don’t cultivate their sub-personas explicitly but rather adopt aesthetics and roles derived from their cultural background. At the same time, roles likely benefit from some kind of cultural context. Besides their effect on cognition, they have a signalling component — dressing up to make an impression. Slotting into an existing cultural niche makes the signal clearer, and might help make the role feel more “real”.2

Let's walk through my current best guess at how to create such a role.

My current plan

My current plan for finding states to embody goes like this:

Find a mental state I want to be able to access with greater ease.
Figure out a way to trigger that mental state.
Use the trigger to “step into” the mental state.
While in the state, try to find an aesthetic expression that fits the state.
1. Maybe there’s an archetype/trope that fits the state.
2. Maybe I get a clear aesthetic preference while embodying the state.
3. Maybe I can talk to someone, and share what I feel like while in the state.
Use the learnings from (4) to figure out a role and/or an aesthetic expression that helps me go into the mental state.
Find accessories, clothes, ways of behaving or similar that reinforce that mental state/role.
Iterate 3→6 as needed

If you feel inspired to try this out, please let me know any results. What roles are you already stepping into on a regular basis?

Here is a list of substack posts on the topic of identity:

P.S: My philosophical guidance practice is growing! People are generally very happy, and I love supporting others in introspective philosophical inquiries. If you have an important problem you struggle to make sense of, I’d love to inquire with you. If you are unsure whether your problem is a good fit, please send me a message :)

Book Philosophical Guidance

Event inspired by the Burning Man principles

This reminds me of the webserial “a practical guide to evil”, a wonderful fantasy series with a trope-based magic system. Warning= rabbit hole. Ähttps://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/

Honest living

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