Emily Cole: Image and Pilgrimage, Appendix A: Flow

M. Csikszentmihalyi’s term Flow coined in 1975 describes, “the merging of action and awareness, the crucial component of enjoyment,” (p. 254). Here, Turner describes flow as a matter of being proactive, requiring total involvement and a logical chain of action to action. The example used to describe this term is the act of plays or sports. An actor knows that he is acting, but he “cannot be aware that he is aware,” which would interrupt the actor’s flow. There are four components to flow listed here: centering of attention, bracketing, framing, and a set of rules. With these four components, Turner writes that “there is a loss of ego…the self becomes irrelevant” and that a state of flow is so enjoyable that sometimes people trade up a comfortable life for its sake.