InTensions™ are impossible binds where both poles are necessary but mutually exclusive. When people experience these, standard interventions often fail because the problem isn’t lack of knowledge, insight, or motivation – it’s being caught in a psychological architecture where both staying and leaving, both persisting and stopping, both knowing and can feel impossible at the same time.
I’m documenting these patterns and developing a diagnostic framework that explains why they occur and why some people respond to interventions while others stay partially or completely stuck.
Here are available posts in the series Navigating Stuckness
I’ve also got a book in progress: Why Don’t They Just…? Understanding What Keeps Capable People Stuck
For more on the framework see Fisher, S. (2026, January 3). Why Don’t They Just ____? InTensions: Diagnostic Architecture for When Change Becomes Psychologically Possible. https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/RHXCB
