Forgetting

Forgetting or Modal confusion occurs when one uses the wrong existential mode for the needs they’re trying to meet. In particular, modal confusion occurs when we try to address developmental needs in a having mode instead of a being mode. This is why it is called Forgetting, as it is forgetting the being mode and using the having mode instead.

It is called Forgetting because it is forgetting the being mode. It is one of the Nine Plagues.

You may confuse having lots of money with being a valuable person, or having lots of sex for being a desirable person

One example is when people try to meet their need to be in love by having sex. Another example is when people buy fancy cars to be more mature.

It can even emerge in philosophy, where people become fixated on having the right propositions instead of on knowledge. Philonikia or love of victory according to Plato instead of Philosophy or love of knowledge.

The solution to modal confusion is to remember that you can be or become rather than merely have. This means breaking free of what advertisers may be trying to tell you to think of yourself and understanding yourself as a being of intrinsic value.

On the philosophical side this manifests in Erosophy

Heidegger is a good philosopher to read to counter Modal Confusion

It is first brought up here

Being mode is developmental needs rather than physical needs

Master slave dialectic and incels are subject to modal confusion

The concept was introduced by Erich Fromm. and renamed to Forgetting in an attempt to standardize vocabulary

Naming trivia
The shift from the word "modal confusion" to the name "demembering" came as a way of emphasizing the forgetting nature, and the contrast with the booster shot of remembering.

There might also be another phraseology of forgetting and regetting. It depends on which one sticks more

The decision was made on October 23 2022 to drop the neologism attempts.