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Glossary

D

defunction

(n.) Anything that diminishes one's ability to function fully, compromising their wellness. Opposite to a refunction.


diffusion of accountability

(n.) The authority to respond to a problem gets spread to others with authority, complicating the path toward a timely and meaningful solution. For example, when a local government official must defer to the authority of the city council and cannot act on their own authority to help a citizen address a municipal problem. Problems and pain then persist in those impacted. 


Diffusing accountability gets spread in at least four different directions:

  • upchain - power centered in others of greater authority, like an identified powerholder's supervisor

  • downchain - power delegated to others of lesser authority, such as with bureaucratic procedures to ostensibly integrate more input

  • sidechain - power delegated to others with shared authority, like a committee or cochair

  • nondescript - power delegated in some other manner, including written norms like a charter or bylaws


This effectively turns a power problem into a structural problem. Which complicates the process for enabling authorities to earn legitimacy. Which provides opportunity to impactors to transform social norms to improve need resolving and problem solving, to earn legitimacy at the transformative level. But insisting they can do nothing to help will likely cost then legitimacy, as this can reinforce cause to distrust them and their institution.


Compare with the psychosociological concept of diffusion of responsibility.


disciplined discourse

(n.) [wellness campaign terminology] - REFUNCTION

A refunction of accountably communicating all the relevant needs in a conflict or situation, by thoroughly challenging any distractions like loaded language, cognitive biases and distortions, formal and informal fallacies, disclosure avoidance, and mischaracterizations, and any applicable defunctions and refunctions. Participants are tasked to "flag" suspected distractions and invite agreement to pause the discussion to remove any identified distractions.


discomfort avoidance

(n.) - DEFUNCTION

Evading anything unpleasant, especially one's own emotional messages warning of some threat or threats to be removed (or remove oneself) in order to preserve full functioning. Avoiding life's natural discomforts raises the risk of slipping into more pain, resulting in more painful problems to avoid. This typically results in dysfunction.


drift

(n.) - DEFUNCTION

The gradual and often imperceptible change from fully resolving natural needs to only easing such needs. Consequently, optimal functioning shifts to suboptimal functioning, from peakfunction to symfunction. This tends to occur when the means to fully resolve needs persistently declines. See symfunction capture.


The shift from symfunction into dysfunction is identified more specifically as deviation. The shift from dysfunction into misfunction is identified as departure. But the simpler language of accessible anankelogy may use “drift” to cover all these shifts into lowered levels of functioning.


Such "drift" typically results from pragmatism creep, as optimal resource needs (i.e., primary resources) become less accessible than less-than-optimal alternate and substitute resources. The more we acclimate to conditions of lesser resources (e.g., easier to seek approval from social media "friends" than connect more deeply with others in person), the more easily we can be coerced in depending upon poor options (CoPOD). Which leaves us vulnerable to the influences of weak power.


dynamic relating

(n.) - REFUNCTION

Actively relating to the needs and experiences of others instead of relying on assumptions, expectations or impersonal rules. Counters normative alienation.


dysfunction

(n.) Level of a person's or entity's ability to function focused on relieving pain from many unresolved needs. Sits above misfunction and below symfunction.





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