Self-Command in Practice, in Policy, and in a Theory of Rational Choice Author(S): Thomas C

American Economic Association

Self-Command in Practice, in Policy, and in a Theory of Rational Choice Author(s): Thomas C. Schelling Reviewed work(s): Source: The American Economic Review, Vol. 74, No. 2, Papers and Proceedings of the Ninety- Sixth Annual Meeting of the American Economic Association (May, 1984), pp. 1-11 Published by: American Economic Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1816322 . Accessed: 15/12/2011 13:46

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http://www.jstor.org RICHARDT. ELYLECTURE

Self-Command in Practice, in Policy, and in a Theory of Rational Choice

By THOMASC. SCHELLING*

An increasingly familiar occurrence for conflict, if, say, the husband disagreeswith obstetriciansis being asked by patients to the physician in the delivery room about withhold anesthesia during delivery. The what his wife really wants. physicianoften proposes that a facemaskbe put beside the patient who may inhale ni- I. AnticipatorySelf-Command trous oxide as she needs it. But some de- terminedpatients ask that no such opportu- This obstetricalexample, though special in nity be provided:if gas is availablethey will certain respects, is not a bad paradigmfor use it, and they want not to be able to. the general anomaly of anticipatory self- The requestis interestingfor decision the- command. That is the phenomenon that I ory, and raises questions of ethics, policy, want to discuss-that a person in evident and physician responsibility, even if the possessionof her facultiesand knowingwhat woman is merely making a mistake-if she she is talking about will rationally seek to simply does not know how painfullabor will prevent,to compel, or to alter her own later be and how glad she will be, even in retro- behavior-to restricther own options in vio- spect, if the pain is relieved.But some wom- lation of what she knows will be her prefer- en who make this request have had earlier ence at the time the behavioris to take place. deliveriesduring which they demandedanes- It is not a phenomenonthat fits easily into a thesia and received it. They are acquainted discipline concerned with rational decision, with the pain. They anticipate asking for revealed preference, and optimization over relief. And they want it withheldwhen they time. do. They expect to regret afterwardsany Attempting to overrule one's own pref- recourseto anesthesia. erencesis certainlyexceptional, as consumer This particularinstance of attemptedself- behavior goes, but not so exceptional that denial has featuresthat are specialbut many anyone who reads this is unfamiliarwith it. that are common.The womanis, so far as we Let me remindyou of some of those behav- know, in good health physically and men- iors that sharewith obstetricalanesthesia the tally. She anticipatesa transientperiod when characteristicthat a person may requestnow her usual values and preferenceswill be sus- that a later requestbe denied. Please do not pended or inaccessible.She has reasons for give me a cigarette when I ask for it, or wanting to frustrateher own wishes at the dessert, or a second drink. Do not give me criticaltime. She needs cooperation.She may my car keys. Do not lend me money. Do not ratify her choice afterward by expressing lend me a gun. herself grateful that no anesthesia was Besides denial there are interventions.Do offered,even when requested.There are ethi- not let me go back to sleep. Interruptme if I cal dilemmasand legal issues, and there is get in an argument.Push me out of the plane when it's my turn to parachute.Don't let me *LuciusN. LittauerProfessor of PoliticalEconomy, go home drunk unless you can remove my HarvardUniversity, Cambridge, MA 02138. I am grate- childrento a safe place. Blow the fuse if you ful to the Russell Sage Foundationand the Alfred P. Sloan Foundationfor support and encouragementin catch me watching television. Make me get this work. up and do my back exercisesevery morning.

I 2 A EA PA PERS A ND PROCEEDINGS MA Y 1984

Keep me moving if I am exhausted in the Professionaldiscussion of suicideindicates wilderness.Pump my stomach if you catch that anticipationof changing preferencesis me overdosedwith sleepingpills. common. There are two symmetricalcases Then there is restructuringof incentives, here. One is preventingsuicide when a per- often with somebody's help. Wagers serve son has asked for protectionagainst his own this purpose, and are often used by people determinationduring periods when he un- who share an interestin losing weight. Con- mistakablyprefers to be dead. The other is fessing somethingincriminating that can be the contrary,being begged to expeditesome- revealed in the event of a lapse, or just one's departurein the event of some ghastly making a ceremonialdisplay of determina- condition, even if the condition is accompa- tion to exerciseor to stay off cigarettes,can nied by such horrorof dying that he will beg threatenoneself with shame. us to perpetuatethat horror in violation of Most of the tacticsused to commandone's our earlierpromise. There is also the person own future performanceprobably do not who elects death but cannot face the finality depend on someone else's participation.I of bringingit about, and, like the parachutist mentionedsome that do, partly for compari- who asks to be shoved out if he grips the son with the obstetricalexample, partly be- door jam, implores our help in getting him cause our experiencewith purely individual over the brink. efforts is usually restrictedto our own and Legal issues arise in some attempts to we are unawareof the effortsof othersunless abdicate rights that are deemed to be a need for cooperationmakes them visible. inalienable.I cannot get a court injunction Further,the legal, ethical, and policy issues against my own smoking. I cannot contract arise mainlywhen a second party is enlisted. with a skydivingpilot to push me out of the And these are the cases that appear to call airplane.I cannot authorizemy psychiatrist for a judgmentabout the ambivalentperson's in advance to have me hospitalizedagainst true interest-which set of preferencesde- my wishes in circumstancesthat we have servesour loyalty or sympathy. agreedon. I cannot contractwith a fat farm The obstetrical case is rich in its ethics to hold me against my will until I have lost and legalities. To which patient is a physi- some numberof pounds; they have to let me cian obligated?The one askingfor anesthesia out when I ask. (If we are clever we can or the one who asked that it be withheld? arrangeit; I go to a remote fat farm that Can the physicianenter a contract that will requiresa 24-hour notice to order a car, a both protect againstmalpractice and compel notice that I can rescind during a moment's compliancewith the woman'searlier prefer- resurgentresolve to lose weight.I have heard ences? Do we like policies that make such that what keeps cruise ships from offering contracts possible; do we like policies that this kind of service is the inability to keep make such contractsvoid? the crew from smuggling extra calories on Physicians,of course,are bound by a pro- board for the black market.) fessionalcode as well as theirpersonal ethics, An interestingissue is the ethics of pro- and are subject to criminal and civil com- hibition-against, say, the display and sale plaints. In the same way, our personalethics of rich dessertsin the facultydining room, or are challengedwhen the drinkingguest who against cigarette smoking in the work- entrusted us with his car keys wants them place-not to keep othersfrom overeatingor back, or snatchesthem and heads for his car. smoking,as is usually the motivationbehind Ourethics are even challengedwhen he didn't prohibitions,but to keep ourselvesfrom suc- ask but we know he intended not to drive cumbing and to reduce the pain of tempta- himself home, he has a momentaryalcoholic tion. There is a legal test in Massachusetts confidencein his drivingability, he will cer- now of whethernicotine addictionis a pro- tainly thank us tomorrowif we disable his tected species of handicapand a person has car, but he demands now that we let him a right to relief through smoking in the alone. workplace. VOL. 74 NO. 2 RICHARD T. ELYLECTURE 3

The most serious cases are those that in- an ostensiblyvoluntary enforceable commit- volve, one way or another, actively or pas- ment. The polygraphis a current example. sively, taking your own life-one of your Sterilizationis another. selves takingthe life that you share.The law Many heroin addicts are alcoholics.Meth- takes sides with the self that will not die. adone is legally available for some heroin Someonewho lives in perpetualterror of his addicts; it replaces the need for heroin. own suicidal tendencies can welcome the Antabuse is legally availablefor alcoholics; law's sanctions against people whom he it interactswith alcohol to produce extreme might, during a passing depression,beg to nausea, and precludesdrinking. Methadone help with suicide. People for whom life has is attractive-at least in the absence of become unbearablebut who cannot summon heroin-but antabuse is unattractivewhen the resolve to end it have the law against alcohol is available.Some therapistsprovide them in their efforts to recruit accomplices. the methadone only after the patient has In Decembera Californiajudge ruledagainst taken the antabuse in the presence of the a quadriplegicwoman who wished to die and therapist.' asked the hospital's help in starvingherself to death. The judge ordered forcefeeding, II. Self-Commandand the RationalConsumer with the comment that "our society values life." How can we accommodate this phenome- Besides legal issues there are regulatory non of strategic self-frustration in our model policies. Nicotine chewing gum is being in- of the rational consumer?We can begin by troduced as a prescriptiondrug. The Na- askingwhether there is a single phenomenon tional Academy of Sciences has proposed here, one that can be epitomizedby addic- that cigaretteslow in tar and high in nicotine tion, appetite,or pain. be developedto see whetherpeople can bet- Adam Smith, by the way, included a ter regulate their intake of tars, carbon chapter on self-commandin his Theoryof monoxide,and other gasses if they can more Moral Sentiments. He meant something dif- readily satisfy their need for nicotine. And ferent-courage, generosity,and othermanly female hormones are being administeredto virtues. In my usage, self-commandis what violent male sex offenderswho volunteerfor you may not need to employ if you already treatment. have enough of what Adam Smith meant by There are now remote monitors that can it. You don't need the skillful exercise of be attached to a parolee that will trans- self-commandto cope with shifting prefer- mit encrypted messages at scheduled times throughan attachmentto the parolee'stele- 'There is an "interactioneffect" that sometimeshas phone to monitorwhether he is abidingby a to be takeninto accountin judgingthe meritsof volun- curfew. But he could voluntarilysubmit to tarily incurredcoercion, or even involuntarily.Physi- surveillanceby a friend, spouse, or other cians who advise their cardiacand pulmonarypatients guardian;and I remind you of the electric- about smoking,and psychiatristswho deal with hospi- talized (incarcerated)heroin addicts,report a common shock dog-trainingcollars that can adminis- phenomenon.Addicts suffernoticeably less withdrawal ter a deterrentto misbehavior.There is no discomfortwhen in an establishmentthat has a reputa- technicaldifficulty in devising an unremov- tion for absoluteincorruptibility, unbribable guards and able blood-alcoholmonitor that could acti- staff, and no undergroundmarket anywhere, compared vate a radio signal, or even administer a with a hospitalin whichit is expected,rightly or wrongly, that appropriateeffort and willingnessto pay will pro- painful shock. duce relief. Cardiac and pulmonarypatients who are There are dangers. One can imagine a told flatly that they must stop completely,at once, if variety of self-restrainingor self-compelling they want to survivethe year not only quit more fre- measuresthat could be used as conditions quentlythan patientsmerely advised to quit if they can, or, if they can't, to cut down or switchbrands, but-this for employment,for election to office, for is the parallel to the heroin example-report surpris- borrowingmoney, or for parole or proba- ingly less withdrawaldiscomfort than thosewho succeed tion, if it were known that one could incur in quittingafter getting the less absoluteadvice. 4 A EA PA PERS A ND PROCEEDINGS MA Y 1984

ences if you've alreadygot your preferences is not so frighteningif you shut your eyes, under control. I cannot resist quoting a pas- especiallyunder the bedclothes. sage that I'm surehe'd like an opportunityto There are compulsive personal habits in- edit once more. "We esteem the man who volving faces and fingernailsthat are difficult supportspain and even torturewith manhood to frustratebecause we cannot take a trip and firmness;and we can have little regard and leave our cuticlesbehind. for him who sinks under them, and aban- Certainillnesses entail such protractedde- dons himself to useless outcriesand woman- pression that, just as a person may attempt ish lamentations." to makedecisions now that he cannot change There is a quite heterogeneousarray of when he becomes aged, a person may put types and circumstancesand it will be useful certain decisions beyond reach during an to recallthem. What they have in commonis anticipatedpostoperative depression. It is not that they invite efforts at anticipatoryself- for nothing that we have the phrase, "a command.Many of them are quite ordinary. jaundicedview"; hepatitisdoes change one's We can begin with behavior anticipated outlook profoundly.Medication can change when one is fatigued,drowsy, drunk, or com- a person's values; self-administrationof ing out of a sound sleep. Or for that matter drugs, stimulants,and tranquilizersis used asleep: people do misbehavein their sleep. deliberately to alter one's effective prefer- They scratch; they remove dressings from ences, and can have similar effects inad- wounds; they adopt postures not recom- vertently.Alcohol makes some people brave mendedby orthopedists.Wearing mittens to when they need to be brave and some fool- frustratescratching or puttingthe alarmclock hardy when they can't afford to be. People across the room are perfectly familiar tech- for whom medicinally induced swings in niques of self-command. mood are an unavoidablechronic way of life Quite differentare acute thirstand hunger, shouldn'tbe disqualifiedas the rationalcon- panic, pain, and rage; some athletes drink sumers that our theoreticalassumptions are water through straws to avoid gulping, and supposedto represent. many people forego the advantagesof a gun Someof those behaviors,like fallingasleep, in the house for fear they'll use it. may not sound like consumerchoices, possi- Thereis captivation-books, puzzles,tele- bly because we do not usually identify them vision, argument, fantasy-that engage a with the marketplace,and some may not person against his earlierdetermination not seem altogethervoluntary. They do remind to be so engaged. Keeping your mind from us that attempts to achieve self-comandare misbehavingon its own is somewhatdiffer- familiar,not necessarilyabnormal, and when ent from keepingit from makingwrong deci- abnormalnot uncommon. sions; still, the mind that sneaks off into There are many such behaviors that we reveriewithout permission, or that won't stop have to acknowledgedo look like consumer chewing on some logical paradox, can be choice: smoking, drinking, overeating,pro- thought of as actually consuming-against crastination,exercise, gambling, licit and il- orders. licit drugs, and shopping binges. And re- There are phobias-reactions of admit- member,I am speakingonly of people who tedly unreasoningfear to heights,enclosures, want to deny themselves later access to crowds, audiences, blood, needles, reptiles, the foods, drugs, gambling,sexual opportu- leeches, filth, and the dark. These, too, look nities, criminalcompanionship, or shopping sometimeslike the mind misbehaving;several splurges that constitute their own acknowl- of them can be broughtunder some control edged problems in self-command.Anyone by shuttingone's eyes. It is not only pediatri- who is happily addicted to nicotine, ben- cians who suggest looking away when the zedrine, valium, chocolate, heroin, or horse knee has to be drained througha four-inch racing, and anyone unhappilyaddicted who needle. I've seen many referencesto a phe- would not elect the pains and deprivationsof nomenonI experiencedas a child-the dark withdrawal,are not my subject. I am not VOL. 74 NO. ' RICHARD T. ELY LECTURE 5 concerned with whether cigarettes or rich representationof values; and we can study dessertsare bad for you, only with the fact the ways that the straightself and the way- that there are people who wish so badly to ward self interactstrategically. We can adopt avoid them that, if they could, they would policies that, if they don't cause troubles put those commodities beyond their own elsewherelike interferingwith civil liberties, reach. help the consumerin his rationalmoments to It is not an invariable characteristicof control that other self and to keep important these activities that there is a unanimously decisions from falling into the wrong hands. identifiedgood or bad behavior.Some dieters But what about the person who, having try to stay below a healthy body weight. given up cigarettessix monthsago, succumbs Some people are annoyedat teetotalers,suc- after dinner to an irresistibleurge to light a cessful dieters,compulsive joggers, or people cigarette,who does so in apparentpossession who neverlose their tempers.And somebody of his faculties,who six monthsearlier, or six who pleads for help in taking his own life, hours,would have paid a price to ensurethat and alternatelypleads not be be heeded on cigarettes would be unavailableat the mo- the occasions when he does, offers no easy ment he changedhis mind?If he werecrazed choice as to who it is we shouldprefer to win with thirst or acutely sufferingopiate with- the contest. The same is true of people who drawalwe could disqualifythe decision: the take steps to prevent their own defection mind is partly disconnected,a level of mind from some religiousfaith. has taken over that is incapableof handling While all of the cases I mentioned, from more than a couple of primitivedimensions scratchingto religiousconversion, are within of desire. But the person lighting that the subjectof self-command,not all of them cigarette doesn't look as though he's bereft need to be recognizedin a theoryof rational of his higherfaculties. decision. The person who prefersnot to get The conclusionI come to is that this phe- out of bed we can considerjust not all there; nomenon of rational strategic interaction thereare chemicalinhibitors of brainactivity among alternatingpreferences is a significant that play a role in sleep, and until they have part of most people's decisions and welfare been metabolizedaway his brainis not work- and cannot be left out of our account of the ing. His case may typify importantdecisions, consumer. We ignore too many important but not the ones our theory is about. You purposivebehaviors if we insist on treating can't make rational decisions when you're the consumeras havingonly values and pref- not rational,and you should rationallykeep erences that are uniform over time, even yourself from trying. Noisy alarms out of short periodsof time. reach representa rationalchoice. Just to establish the magnitude of the What we can do is to append to our problem, consider cigarette smoking. There consumer a list of disqualifying circum- are thirty-fivemillion Americanswho have stancesin which his decisionsare likely to be quit smoking.Most of them had to make at mistakenones, and we make it the ordinary least three serious tries in order to quit. Of consumer'sbusiness, if he can't keep out of those thirty-fivemillion, about five million those circumstances,to take steps in advance are in dangerof relapse,and two million will to keep himself from makingany decisions, resumesmoking and regretit. Most of those or to arrangein advance to have his deci- will try again, and three-quarterswill fail on sions disregarded.An importantpart of the the next try. There are fifty-five million consumer'stask is then not merelyhousehold cigarettesmokers, among whom some forty managementbut self-management-treating or forty-fivemillion have tried to quit; nearly himself as though he were occasionally a half have already tried three times or more, servantwho might misbehave.That way we and some twenty million of those cigarette separate the anomalous behavior from the smokersmade a serioustry, and failed,within rational;we take sides with whichevercon- the past year. More than half of all young sumer self appeals to us as the authentic smokers,of both sexes, tried to quit within 6 A EA PAPERS AND PROCEEDINGS MA Y 1984 the past year and failed. A thirdof all young nately replaceeach other; or an unchanging smokershave unsuccessfullytried threetimes array of values is differentiallyaccessible at or more.They know that smokingis danger- different times, like differentsoftwares that ous, and we know that it is worthsome years have differentrules of search and compari- of their life expectancy. Smoking behavior son, access to differentparts of the memory, alone is a major determinantof consumer differentproclivities to exaggerateor to dis- welfare, one that a theory based on stable tort or to suppress.We know that the sight preferencesand rational choice cannot il- of a glistening bowl of peanuts can trigger luminate without some modification; and unintended search and retrievalfrom mem- smokingis only one such behavior. ory, some of it subliminal,and even changes There has been interestingwork on how in the chemicalenvironment of the brain. In time preferences,as among future points in commonlanguage, a personis not alwayshis time, can changeas time goes by-how one's usual self; and without necessarily taking preferredallocation of resourcesbetween the sides as between the self we consider more decade of the 1990's and the next decade usual and the other one that occasionally after that can changebetween 1980 and 1990. gains command,we can say that it looks as if I have in mind ideas associatedwith Robert differentselves took turns, each self wanting Strotz (1956), Edmund Phelps and Robert its own values to govern what the other self Pollak (1968), Pollak (1968), and Jon Elster or selves will do by way of eating, drinking, (1977, 1979). And we know the anecdote of getting tattooed, speakingits mind, or com- the politicallyradical twenty-year-old whose mitting suicide. conservativefather infuriates him by putting a sum of moneyin trustthat the son may use III. Strategyand Tactics for political contributions only when he reaches the conservative age of forty. I From this point of view we can be quite propose we admit not only unidirectional straightforwardin examining the strategies changes over time, but changes back and and tactics with which differentselves com- forth at intervals of years, months, weeks, pete for command. Here are some of the days, hours, or even minutes, changes that strategiesI have in mind.3 can entail bilateral as well as unilateral Relinquishauthority to somebody else: strategy.2 let him hold your car keys. There are differentways to say what I'm Commit or contract: order your lunch describing.Two or more sets of values alter- in advance. Disable or removeyourself: throw your 2Animaginative and comprehensivetreatment of this car keys into the darkness; make yourself subject,including comparisons with animalbehavior, is sick. George Ainslie (1975). An intriguingphilosophical ap- Remove the mischievous resources: proach is Elster (1977, 1979). In economics there are don't keep liquor, or sleeping pills, in the attemptsto fit self-controlwithin the economicstradi- house; ordera hotel room withouttelevision. tion and some outside that tradition.The best known effortto fit self-controlwithin the economicstradition is George Stiglerand Gary Becker(1977); their formula- tion denies the phenomenonI discuss.On the edge of 3These strategiesexclude "seek professionalhelp," traditionaleconomics are C. C. von Weizsacker(1971) even "get a good book." Thereare therapies:some are and Roger McCain (1979). Outside the traditionand based on fairly unified theories and some are quite viewing the consumeras complex ratherthan singular eclectic.Good examplesin printof the moreeclectic are are Amartya Sen (1977), Gordon Winston (1980), K. Daniel O'Learyand G. TerrenceWilson (1975) and RichardThaler and H. M. Shefrin(1981), and Howard David Watson and Roland Tharp(1981), intendedfor Margolis(1982). Winston,Thaler-Shefrin, and Margolis use as college textbooks,and Ray Hodgson and Peter recognizea refereeor superself,or planner-doerdichot- Miller (1982), a seriouswork designedfor popularuse. omy, that I do not see; whetherthe differenceis percep- Many of the strategiesI mention are representedin tion or methodologyI am not sure.The most pertinent books like these. A more focussed self-help book is interdisciplinarywork I knowof by an economistis the Nathan Azrinand R. GregoryNunn (1977),now unfor- brilliant small book by Tibor Scitovsky (1976). For tunatelyout of print; it deals mainlywith "grooming" relatedearlier work of mine, see my 1984 book. and other personalhabits. VOL. 74 NO. 7 RICHARD T. ELY LECTURE 7

Submitto surveillance. monial beginnings.If procrastinationis your Incarcerate yourself. Have somebody problem, set piecemeal goals. Make very drop you at a cheap motel withouttelephone specific delay rules, requiringnotice before or television and call for you after eight relapse, with notice subject to withdrawal. hours' work. (When George Steiner visited Permitno exceptions.5 the home of Georg Lukacshe was astonished at how much work Lukacs,who was under IV. Implicationsfor WelfareJudgments political restraint,had recently published- shelves of work. Lukacs was amused and An unusual characteristicof these two explained,"You want to know how one gets selves, if you will permit me to call them work done? House arrest,Steiner, house ar- selves, is that it is hard to get them to sit rest!") down together. They do not exist simulta- Arrangerewards and penalties. Charg- neously.Compromises are limited,if not pre- ing yourself $100 payable to a political cluded,by the absenceof any internalmedia- candidateyou despise for any cigaretteyou tor. I supposethey mightget separatelawyers smokeexcept on twenty-fourhours' notice is or agree on an arbitrator.If the obstetrician a powerful deterrentto rationalizingthat a with whom I began this lecture insists on singlecigarette by itself can't do any harm.4 takingthe pain somewhatmore seriously than Reschedule your life: do your food his patientwanted him to, we would have an shoppingright after breakfast. arbitrated compromise between the two Watch out for precursors:if coffee, al- selves. cohol, or sweet desserts make a cigarette For this reasonwe shouldexpect outcomes irresistible,maybe you can resist those com- that occasionallyappear Pareto nonoptimal plementaryfoods and drinks and avoid the comparedwith the bargainsthey might like cigarette. to strike: Arrangedelays: the crisis may pass be- Not keeping liquor or rich foods in the fore the time is up. house, both selves sufferingthe detrimentto Use buddies and teams: exercise to- their reputationas host; gether,order each other'slunches. Not keeping sleeping pills in the house, Automatethe behavior.The automation both selves sufferingoccasional insomnia; that I look forwardto is a device implanted Not keepingtelevision in the house,both to monitor cerebralhemorrhage that, if the selves missingthe morningnews. strokeis severeenough to indicatea hideous The simplicitywith which we can analyze survival,kills the patient before anyone can the strategyof self-commandby recognizing interveneto removeit. the analogywith two selves comes at a price Finally, set yourself the kinds of rules -a price in terms of what we value in our that are enforceable. Use bright lines and model of the consumer.When we identify a clear definitions, qualitative rather than consumer attempting to exercise command quantitativelimits if possible. Arrangecere- over his own future behavior, to frustrate some of his own future preferences,we im- port into the individual a counterpart-I 4There is a cocaine addictionclinic in Denver that has used self-blackmailas part of its therapy. The patientmay write a self-incriminatingletter that is placed 5My back book prescribesexercises that are to be in a safe, to be deliveredto the addresseeif the patient, done faithfullyevery day. I am certain that some of who is tested on a randomschedule, is found to have them need to be done only two or three times a week. used cocaine. An example would be a physicianwho But the authorknows that "two of threetimes a week" writesto the StateBoard of MedicalExaminers confess- is not a scheduleconducive to self-disciplines.My peri- ing that he has violatedstate law and professionalethics odontist tells me that patients told to performcertain in the illicit use of cocaine and deserves to lose his cleansingoperations faithfully every day are prettygood license to practicemedicine. It is handledquite formally at it, but told they can get alongon two or threetimes a and contractually,and serves not only as a powerful week relapse to two or three times every two or three deterrentbut as a ceremonialexpression of determina- weeks; he cannot then crediblyinsist they go back on tion. the daily schedule. 8 A EA PA PERS AND PROCEEDINGS MA Y 1984 think an almost exact counterpart- to inter- made by a warm boy; another boy awoke personal utility comparisons.Each self is a cold in the night, too cold to go look for a set of values; and though the selves share blanket, cursing the boy who removed the most of those values,on the particularissues blanket and swearingto returnit tomorrow. on which they differ fundamentally there But the next bedtime it was the warm boy doesn't seem to be any way to comparetheir again, dreaming of Antarctica,who got to utility increments and to determine which make the decision, and he always did it behaviormaximizes their collectiveutility. again. I still don't know whether, if those I should remark here that it is only in Antarctic dreams had come true, I'd have talking with economists that I feel at all been better able to withstand the cold and secure in using the terminologyof "selves." both boys would have been glad that the Philosophersand psychiatristshave theirown command structuregave the decision to the definitionsof the self, and legal scholarsmay boy who, feeling no pain himself, could in- resist the concept of the multipleself when it flict it on the other. seems to raise questions about which "self" The personwho can't get himselfup in the committedthe crime or signed the contract, morningI said was not quite all there. Why and whetherthe self on trialis the wrongone does that count againsthim? Apparently be- and we must wait for the "other" to cause he cannot fully appreciatewhat it will materializebefore trial,sentence, or incarcer- be like to be late to work. But does the self ation. It is only in economics that the indi- who sets the alarm, and arranges with a vidual is modelled as a coherentset of pref- tennis partner to roll him out of bed, fully erences and certain cognitive facilities; and appreciatethe discomfort of getting out of though economistsare free to deny the phe- bed? My answeris yes. But notice: I am not nomenon I'm discussing, if they recognize in bed. I lectureonly when I am awake,and the phenomenonI think they have little diffi- the self that might preferto stay in bed goes culty with the languageof alternativeselves. unrepresented. What about that woman who denies her- In another respect I am not impartial.I self anesthesia,pleads for it during delivery, have my own stakes in the way people be- and denies it again at the next delivery? have. For my comfort and convenience I What about the person who drops by prefer that people act civilized, drive care- parachutewith survivalgear into the wilder- fully, and not lose their temperswhen I am ness to go a month without smoking,drink- around or beat their wives and children. I ing, overeatingor sleeping late as he beats like them to get their work done. Now that I his way back to civilization,cursing all the don't smoke, I preferpeople near me not to. way the self that jumped, then pleased with As long as we have laws against drug abuse himself when the ordeal is over? Is there a it would be easier all aroundif people didn't way to formulatethe question,did the indi- get hooked on something that makes them vidualmaximize utility? Or can we only argue break the law. In the languageof economics, that one of the selves enhancedits own util- these behaviors generate externalities and ity at the expenseof the other?When we ask make us interestedparties. Even if I believe the motherwho an hour ago was franticwith that some poor inhibitedcreature's true self pain whethershe is glad the anesthesiawas emerges only when he is drunk enough to denied her, I expect her to answeryes. But I admit that he despises his wife and children don't see what that proves. If we ask her and gets satisfactionout of scaring them to while she is in pain, we'll get anotheranswer. death, I have my own reasons for cooperat- As a boy I saw a movie about Admiral ing with that repressed and inhibited self Byrd's first Antarctic expedition and was that petitions me to keep him sober if I can, impressedthat as a boy he had gone out- to restrainhim if he's drunk, or to keep his doors in shirtsleeves to toughen himself wife and childrensafely away from him. againstthe cold. I decidedto toughenmyself Consider the person who pleads in the by removingone blanketfrom my bed. That night for the terminationof an unbearable decision to go to bed one blanket short was existence and expressesrelief at midday that VOL. 74 NO. 2 RICHARD T. ELY LECTURE 9 his gloomy night broodingswere not taken man were Captain Ahab. Howevermuch he seriously, who explains away the nighttime implores us now not to burn his leg, Ahab self in hopes of discreditingit, and pleads will surely thank us afterwards.But now I again for terminationthe next night. Should wonderwhat that proves. we look for the authentic self? Maybe the If one of you were to be burned so that I nighttimeself is in physicalor mental agony might live I would probablythank the people and the daytime self has a short memory. who did it. If you burn me so that I may live Maybe the daytime self lives in terror of I'll thankyou, afterward,but that is because death and is condemned to perpetuate its I'll be feeling no pain and not anticipating terror by franticallystaying alive, suppres- any when I thank you. SupposeI were to be sing both memory and anticipation of the burnedand Ahab in the next room needed to more tangible horrors of the night. Or the be cauterizedtoo. Would you, while holding nighttime self is perhaps overreacting to me down in disregardof my plea, ask my nocturnalgloom and depressedmetabolism, expert advice on whetherto burn Ahab, and trappedin a nightmarethat it does not real- his advice on whetherto burn me? ize ends at dawn. How do we know whether an hour of The question, which is the authenticone, extreme pain is more than life is worth? may define the problem wrong. Both selves Alternatively,how do we know whether an can be authentic. Like Siamese twins that hour of extreme pain is more than death is live or die together but do not share pain, worth?6The conclusionthat I reach is that I one pleads for life and the other for do not know, not for you and not for me. death-contradictory but inseparablepleas. I do feel sure that if I wanted in such If one of the twins sleeps when the other is circumstancesto endure the pain I would awake,they are like the two selves that alter- have to rely on people who were tough nate between night and day. The problem enough in spirit to hold me down, or at least seems to be distributive,not one of identifi- to tie me down. And if any violation of the cation. Captain'sexpress orders constituted mutiny A few years ago I saw again the original punishableby death, you would have to gag Moby Dick, an early talkie in black and Ahab to keep him from screaming"don't" white. There was a scene-not in the and thus condemninghimself to a fatal in- book-of Ahab in the water losing his leg, fection. (Still, if the Captainhimself presides and immediatelyafterward below deck under over the trial of the mutineerswho held him a blanket, eating an apple with three of the when he shouted "stop," they will be in no crew. The blacksmithenters with a hot iron dangerof his wrath;so, anticipatingacquital to cauterizethe stump. Ahab begs not to be with thanks, they may as well hold him burned.The crewmenhold him down as he down.) spews out the apple in a scream,and steam I have found, in conversations about rises where the iron is tormentinghis leg. Ahab'splight, that people like me approveof The movie resumes with Ahab out of pain his being burned against his express wishes, and apparentlyglad to be alive. There is no not merely burned despite his involuntary sign that he-look disciplinaryaction against the blacksmith or the men who held him Many discussions of ambivalencetoward suicide, while he was tortured. especiallyfor the wretchedlyor terminallyill, suggesta When I first began contemplatingthis epi- comparisonwith the case of Ahab. The ambivalence appearsless an alternationbetween preferences for life sode I thoughtit an incontestablecase of the and for death than a preferencefor death and a horror utility gain from denying freedomof choice of dying. Death is the permanentstate; dying is the act and ignoringrevealed preference. I wondered of getting there, and it can be awesome, terrifying, whether Ahab might have instructed the gruesome, and possibly painful. Ahab can enjoy blacksmith that in the event of a ghastly life-minus a leg-only by undergoinga brief horrify- ing event,just as the permanentrelief of death can be wound to any memberof the crew it was the obtainedonly by undergoingwhat may be a brief and blacksmith'sresponsibility to heat an iron horrifyingevent, especially if the healingprofessions will and burn the wound, even if the wounded not help or are not allowedto. 10 A EA PAPERS AND PROCEEDINGS MA Y 1984

screamsand thrashingsbut against his hor- dergo it for twice that sum. The experimenter rifiedbegging before he went out of his mind is embarrassed;anticipating your favorable with pain. I interpretthat to mean that peo- response,he has alreadyinitiated the experi- ple like me prefer a regime in which we ment with you, perhaps through something ourselveswould be held and burned even if you drank.You sufferthe pain and are con- we asked not be be. Yet our willingnessto firmed in your originaljudgement that you considerthe need to be held againstour will wouldn'tdo it for a year'sincome. When the is an acknowledgementthat, being certainly pain is over and you've recoveredfrom the no braverthan Ahab, we would in the event shock, you receive the money. Question: react as he did. That could mean that, at a when you see the experimenteron the side- position remotein time or in likelihoodfrom walk as you test-driveyour new Porsche,are the event we are betterable to appreciatethe you glad he made that hideous mistake? relativemerits of pain and death. But when I A second experiment: some anesthetics examine my own attitude,I usually find the block transmissionof the nervous impulses contrary. If I try to imagine my way into that constitute pain; others have the char- Ahab's dilemma I find myself becoming so acteristic that the patient responds to the obsessedwith immediatepain comparedwith pain as if feeling it fully but has utterly no immediatedeath that I begin agreeingwith recollection afterwards. One of these is Ahab. sodium pentothal. In my imaginaryexperi- If thereis any wisdomin my currentchoice, ment we wish to distinguishthe effectsof the which is to be held and burnedif I am ever drug from the effects of the unremembered in Ahab's situation, it is the wisdom of pain, and we want a healthy control subject choosing sides without fully acquainting in parallelwith some painful operationsthat myself with their merits. What I avoid is will be performedwith the help of this drug. identifyingmyself with that personwho may For a handsomefee you will be knockedout be burned,even though I know that it could for an hour or two, allowed to sleep it off, be I. In the same way afterwards,I shall then tested before you go home. You do this thank you because I do not much identify regularly,and one afternoon you walk into with the historicalI who was burned in the the lab a little early and find the experi- recent past. But I shall know then that if I menters viewing some videotape. On the had to do it again I would preferdeath. It is screen is an experimentalsubject writhing, hard for two selves that do not simulta- and though the audio is turned down the neously exist to compare their pains, joys, shrieksare unmistakablythose of a personin and frustrations. pain. When the pain stops the victim pleads, In exploring this problem of identity I "Don't ever do that again. Please." have been tantalizedby some imaginaryex- The person is you. periments:imagine being offereda chance to Do you care? earn a substantialsum, say an amountequal Do you walk into your booth, lie on the to a year'sincome, for undergoingan exceed- couch, and hold out your arm for today's ingly painful episode that would have no injection? physical aftereffects.Upon hearingwhat the Should I let you? pain is like, you refuse; maybe you'd un- REFERENCES

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