You Are Not a Problem To Solve - On Intersubjectivity, and the Objects We Make of Each Other

There's a moment where someone stops being a person to you and becomes a situation: a difficult client, a high-maintenance friend, a problem your partner needs to solve. And there's a quieter, more common version of that same moment: where you stop being a person to yourself, and become a body to manage, a performance to monitor, a project that should be doing better by now.

In this episode, Dr. David Schlosz explores intersubjectivity, the practice of meeting another person, or yourself, as a full presence rather than an object to be managed. Drawing on Martin Buber's I-Thou / I-It framework, Donald Winnicott's false self, Murray Bowen's differentiation of self, and Carl Rogers' core conditions for change, this episode walks through what objectification actually looks like, why we do it, what it costs us, what it gives us, how culture trains us into it, and, most importantly, how we practice our way back out.