Consider the Greeks (oh go on): they talked of ‘humours’ and ‘deities’ and ‘furies’ that would possess and direct the heroes of their myths. Joseph Campbell says that when we are enraged or gripped by jealousy or lust, these supernatural energies have us in their grasp. When I transfer my attention from my own life and problems to the life and problems of the person on the other end of the phone, I have to, and this of course must have a biochemical component, wrench my thoughts off one circuit of the psyche and access another. Attention and intention are the Sat-Nav and petrol of
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