[From Fred Nickols (2004.12.09.0933 EST)] --
First, I see from Bjorn's post below that he debated sending it for four
years. (Either that or it's a typo or his calendar is off.) 
From Bjorn Simonsen (2000.12.09,11:12 EST)
And sometimes it is as difficult as when a smoker moves up a level
to be a non-smoker.
I'm an ex-smoker. Started when I was 10 and smoked steadily for 40+ years -
with some occasional quitting periods of a few weeks to a few months. In
June of 1990, I moved to the Princeton, NJ area and my wife joined me there
in June of 1991. When I relocated I promised her I would be a non-smoker by
the time she arrived. I quit in June of 1990 and had been a non-smoker for
a year by the time she arrived. I'm still a non-smoker.
Now, how did I do that? If I describe it in lay terms, it boils down to
deciding to quit, stifling the urge to smoke for about five days (which
seems to be my withdrawal period), regularly reminding myself that I no
longer smoked, refusing cigarettes when offered, not buying, carrying or
"bumming" any, and disposing (or at least putting away) the supporting
paraphernalia (mainly ashtrays). In short, in lay terms, I view my quitting
smoking as an exercise in will power (no pun intended) supported by some
rather commonplace behavioral management techniques.
Speaking of Will(iam) Power(s), I suppose the PCT view would say that I
reorganized, that I adopted or established a new reference signal at some
level that did not permit me to smoke or that defined me as a non-smoker, in
which case smoking would be inconsistent with some reference signal (which
some might call self-image).
I was familiar with and a fan of PCT in 1990 and had been for about 15
years. Was PCT helpful to me in my effort to quit smoking? Not in any way
that I can point to. Was my operant conditioning/reinforcement theory
know-how a factor? Not in any way that I can point to. Both, I believe,
can be used to explain or account for the fact that I stopped smoking - and
I happen to like the PCT explanation better - but, unless and until tools
and techniques rooted in a theory are developed, tested and proven to work,
that theory remains a theory, an explanation.
I have learned from my study of PCT that the control of others' behavior,
although doable at the level of overt behavior, is totally impractical with
respect to covert behavior, and equally impractical with respect to any but
the most trivial overt behaviors. Control over constellations of behavior
is flat out impossible; not even the behaving person does that, controlling
instead, perceptions, not behavior.
Yet, I remain convinced that there's a pony in there somewhere. I don't
know if it ties to finding ways to help trigger, if not manage, what PCT
calls "reorganization" or if it ties to negotiating as close as we can come
to mutually understood or "shared" reference signals for quality work or if
it lies somewhere else. But I'm gonna keep lookin' 'cause I know it's in
there somewhere. And I am, after all, an incorrigible and unrepentant
exploiter of knowledge.
Regards,
Fred Nickols
nickols@att.net
www.nickols.us