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orbmanson7 · 2 years

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Removing Scheduled Breaks: An Analysis of Logan's Pragmatic Approach in WTIT

Logan utilizes a pragmatic approach to the situation in Working Through Intrusive Thoughts, but was that the right method to use?

Logan is very quick to recognize (though not quite understand) Thomas’ stress in Working Through Intrusive Thoughts and he tries to offer known ways to help alleviate that stress. This shows that Logan cares about Thomas, that his overall goal here is to help, and that he is able to use what he’s learned about psychology and his knowledge of what methods work best for Thomas to offer probable solutions in this scenario.

As much as he does care, he uses a pragmatic approach rather than an empathetic one, so his words can come off as matter of fact or rude simply because he’s trying to solve the problem as opposed to just listening to the problem.

We’ve seen in some cases in Sanders Sides that his pragmatic approaches don’t actually help, like in Learning New Things About Ourselves, wherein Thomas felt better after trying the others’ method of puppetry and singing. Even though he still had questions and the problem wasn’t actually solved, he explained to Logan that he believed the method worked because it made him feel better.

Now, allow me to explain this in more detail for a moment.

Empathetic approaches to issues often are about listening to the other person’s struggles and sympathizing with their emotional state. It's about responding to that emotion and pain with understanding and compassion instead of judgment, with the only real goal being to let the person know they are supported and cared for.

Pragmatic approaches, or analytical ones, are more about deducing the cause of the problem and finding ways to prevent it from happening again in the future, either by establishing a plan with logical steps to be taken to achieve a desired result or by correcting a wrong behavior and offering a better solution. And it’s not that someone using a pragmatic approach doesn’t care about the other person, it’s just that they see little point in “feeling good” when you can act to prevent the problem that caused you to feel bad in the first place. You can just “feel good” later when everything has been resolved, right?

While the desire to problem solve comes from empathy, it does not express empathy, which is why a pragmatic approach is often not very effective.

And, because pragmatic approaches often involve giving a solution to someone else’s problem, this can be considered unsolicited advice, which is when someone offers a suggestion or solution when they weren’t asked to. If a person is merely venting about their stress in a situation, they are not asking for someone to find a solution to their problem. They likely just want someone to listen to them and maybe offer some support or positive words so they can feel better, so they would prefer to be met with an empathetic response. Someone coming in to offer advice at that moment without being asked can be seen as rude, unsympathetic, and criticizing. This can be interpreted as someone seeking control or establishing a sense of power over a person or situation, regardless of what their true intentions in offering that solution may be. Even if using a pragmatic approach is still an attempt to help, the person didn’t ask for a solution, so it’s unsolicited and, depending on the circumstances, could even make their situation worse.

The way to deal with unsolicited advice is typically to establish and maintain boundaries on both sides, by making sure to listen to the person who doesn’t want advice and asking first before offering any suggestions or solutions, and to make it clear to the person offering that advice that if you want their suggestions, you will ask for them.

This puts the onus of the problem on the person using a pragmatic approach. They must learn not to assume anything and only willingly listen, but they also need to learn how to approach every social situation with the correct response and utilize empathy as needed, which is not an easy feat for anyone to do. Their preference for pragmatic responses may be unneeded or unwanted, so to avoid failure or confrontation, they either have to change that response to properly match each situation or simply not respond at all.

Tangent over.

So, when you relate all this back to Logan, you can recognize very quickly what happened in regards to his understanding of the situation in Learning New Things About Ourselves. Thomas preferred the empathetic response, and the others did not want Logan to give them unsolicited advice, so he stopped giving it. Over the next few episodes, we can see that he took more time to listen to Thomas and the others, only entered the discussion when summoned, and only offered solutions when asked for them first.

This is meant to be most of the solution to the problem of unsolicited advice, but it doesn’t give regard to the fact that Logan using a pragmatic approach was his way of trying to help. Offering a solution to a problem is not him lording control and power over the others, he is simply trying to make it so that the others don’t have to feel upset about it, which is often the case when someone uses a pragmatic response. Because empathetic responses require empathy, that means you have to sympathize or feel the other’s pain, but a pragmatic response allows you to keep a distance from those emotions.

But, as was seen in Learning New Things About Ourselves, Logan needed to learn that his way was not always the right way. And while he did learn this lesson, there was no attempt made to understand why he used a pragmatic approach in the first place, so Logan was the only one seen as being in the wrong and needing to change.

Weird how that works, huh?

However, let it be known that pragmatic approaches have been useful for Thomas in other situations. Take what happened in My Negative Thinking, for instance. Because the other sides were preoccupied, Thomas called on Logan to tell him he did good “objectively,” meaning he wanted Logan to use an empathetic approach to cheer him up. Logan points out that he does not typically do this and speaks very matter-of-factly about Thomas’ performance, until Virgil shows up to elicit a negative emotional response from Thomas.

Logan sees the root of the issue and recognizes Virgil’s sway over the situation. He then uses his pragmatic approach to accurately portray the events that had Thomas so worried and stressed, to help him remove the emotion that was clouding his thoughts. Combating cognitive distortions, Logan’s pragmatic response helped Thomas to feel better and more confident in the truth of the situation. Offering suggestions and solutions to help Thomas prevent future issues with cognitive distortions wasn’t seen as the wrong approach in that situation at all, even though what Thomas had initially asked for was an empathetic response from Logan. But he recognized the merit of solving the underlying issue and was able to understand why Logan would use such an approach by the end.

So, then we return to Working Through Intrusive Thoughts, and its premise being that Thomas was up late the night before and, in an attempt to avoid the fact that Nico hadn’t responded to his text yet, that he asked Logan to help him get his life together, starting with a cleaning schedule.

I shouldn’t have to clarify that he specifically requested that Logan do this, but there is little emphasis on the premise in the episode itself and the fandom was quick to interpret that Logan acted like that on a more regular basis, which was not the case at all. This was a rare circumstance, where Thomas asked Logan to give him multiple tasks to accomplish that day, meaning he was purposefully using Logan as a way to keep him distracted so he wouldn’t be thinking about Nico. This ultimately didn’t work, for the same reason that Logan explained in Dealing with Intrusive Thoughts about why you can’t just ignore intrusive thoughts.

Trying not to think about something just makes you think about it even more.

This is why Thomas struggled so much throughout the entirety of Working Through Intrusive Thoughts, because he was refusing to address his feelings about it and the thought refused to go away on its own, which only stressed him out further, worsening the issue.

But, remember, Logan has some control in this situation. Thomas asked for his help with this, specifically a coordinated plan that involved a pragmatic approach to the problem, so that means he can offer solutions.

He informs Thomas of the scheduled tasks, gives reminders, and offers suggestions to keep him on task. When Thomas gets overwhelmed by his thoughts or emotions, Logan pauses the task to address the concern pragmatically. He is understanding in so much as he recognizes where Thomas’ stress originates and that there’s research that shows possible solutions to better his situation, so he offers those methods for Thomas to relieve stress and take care of himself. Yes, it cuts into the schedule, but without the necessary focus, the task wouldn’t get done anyway, so he claims it’s fine.

Logan is very caring and willing to listen in these moments despite his pragmatic approach. And that’s because, at the core of all of this, he wants to help Thomas. This isn’t about control or power, it’s about offering something that will help. But, remember, using the wrong approach can make a situation worse, especially when it comes to unsolicited advice.

We see this come into play when Thomas stops eating his breakfast because he's too stressed, experiencing cognitive distortions that are preventing him from completing the task. When Thomas expresses his anxiety about something being in his oatmeal, that he's worried he may choke, Logan applies a pragmatic response that has worked in the past for a similar concern (My Negative Thinking) by bringing in the reality that this is unlikely to happen. This results in Thomas slamming his fists on the table and shouting, "You're not listening!"

This is because Logan was not using empathy. Thomas had expressed his anxious thoughts, which should have been met with empathy and understanding, but because Logan was using a pragmatic response to help alleviate the cognitive distortions (the root of the problem), he came off as judgmental and uncaring, regardless of his intention.

Often, when using a pragmatic approach, a person offers advice based on knowledge they already have, either by learning it through research or by experiencing a similar situation of their own. This means that the methods Logan uses in Working Through Intrusive Thoughts to help Thomas are likely a combination of things he knows can work due to what he’s learned from research, by observing what has already worked best for Thomas in the past, and what has worked in his own experiences.

Certain suggestions that appear in the episode, like pausing a task so that Thomas can color in a coloring book as a way to gain control of his situation and relieve stress, are likely learned through his research in psychology. These are methods that have worked for others and such a method can work for Thomas, too.

Similar to his comments about Thomas being unlikely to choke on oatmeal, he has observed that offering factual information and helping Thomas reframe his situation without intense emotion attached has helped in the past, so he uses this method, as well.

But there’s something Logan does near the very start of the episode, a suggestion that is very pragmatic and doesn’t lean to something learned through research on self-care methods or what may have worked for Thomas in the past. No, it seems like a suggestion born purely from Logan’s own experience.

It’s the first thing Logan does when he notifies Thomas that they are already behind schedule. The moment he states there’s a setback in the routine, he cuts out scheduled break times so that the amount of work doesn’t have to be reduced.

This shows that despite recognizing there is already underlying stress making a task harder to complete, he prioritizes getting things done over feeling good. To Logan, getting something done, even if you feel awful throughout the process, is better than being unproductive and getting nothing done at all. It’s an interesting strategy that relies on pragmatism and ignores empathy as much as possible.

Next, when Logan hands Thomas the quickly-adjusted schedule so he can set reminders in his phone, he’s giving Thomas the steps to resolve the issue they had both agreed to work on that day. Thomas immediately gives a sarcastic response, that he "appreciated" Logan breaking the schedule down into five-minute increments.

Through his tone, we can tell Thomas saw this as an overstep, something common in unsolicited advice. Instead of recognizing the help being given, he saw the excess instruction Logan used here as him being very controlling, as if he was only being so specific because he assumed Thomas was too stupid to know how to do these tasks otherwise. When, in reality, Logan was likely using timed increments to help Thomas keep a steady workflow (which left little time for him to think about negative feelings, the exact thing Thomas wanted) and make the multitude of tasks slightly easier to achieve by breaking them down into smaller, more clearly clarified steps (allowing for easier achievement of those goals).

Logan either picked up on this sarcasm or shared the underlying anger of his statement, because he then responds by telling Thomas not to mention it, a common polite phrase, only to add rather angrily that he doesn’t have the time.

This comment is what triggers the first major intrusive thought Thomas has in the episode and continues to feed into more negative thinking up until the end. Time slipping away, so many things to get done, no one to help him – all of it adds more and more to Thomas’ stress, and Logan constantly reminding Thomas that he doesn’t have time to take breaks doesn’t help with this at all.

Unlike what he’d learned in the past about there being multiple ways to solve an issue, Logan pushed for what he saw as the ‘right way’ in this episode. When Thomas waking up late meant the schedule was already off to a bad start, he didn’t rearrange the agreed-upon schedule or try to alter the list of tasks – his immediate first instinct was to remove the breaks, ones that he had added to the schedule in the first place.

But Logan isn’t heartless in doing this, he’s simply using a strategy that he has found to work (likely more so for himself than for Thomas). And he makes sure to still listen and look out for Thomas so that needed breaks and self-care can still be implemented when Thomas is too stressed to complete the task at hand.

Unfortunately, this is applying self-care in the exact way that Janus warned against in Putting Others First, that you can’t only take care of yourself when the situation is dire, you have to make it regular practice. By removing scheduled breaks, Logan was relegating their importance, deeming them only necessary if Thomas had already been rendered unable to stay productive and complete a task.

So while Logan, again, recognizes that it's important to take breaks, he does not see doing so as a priority. He believes breaks are something that can be removed or skipped over for the sake of efficiency, which likely means if he was in a position where he himself was struggling, he’d be more inclined to force himself to keep working instead of giving himself room to breathe. Which is not a great sign, nor does it bode well when he tries to apply this tactic with Thomas.

However, again, he is using this pragmatic approach because it’s 1) what Thomas requested and 2) what he has seen help Thomas with this type of situation in the past. Logan has a lot of reason to keep trying to make this approach work, even if it doesn’t seem to be producing the desired result.

Unfortunately for Logan, Thomas’ request was made in a desperate attempt to avoid negative feelings which actually needed to be met with an empathetic approach due to the underlying reason for why Thomas had requested the help.

But Logan didn’t know this, so he used the wrong approach, and when he realized Thomas still needed empathetic methods applied, he just sprinkled them in by enabling breaks and self-care when Thomas couldn't continue a task. However, the mindset that the work needs to be done and this break is just a minor setback to the schedule is very prevalent, so much so that when Logan tries to help Thomas get past his cognitive distortions, he's then resistant to doing so.

Logan tells Thomas, "Remember, in a situation like this, being hard on yourself is counter-productive.”

To which Thomas responds, "But THIS feels counter-productive," with 'this' being an indicator towards a method of self-care.

Logan may be explaining truthfully that studies have shown being hard on yourself or punishing yourself for something out of your control does not improve your situation or fix anything, but Thomas is picking up on Logan's true thoughts in the episode instead - that having to constantly stop what they're doing to 'feel better' is a waste of time.

Their conversation is an interesting insight into Logan's reason for using a pragmatic approach, because the alternative of an empathetic approach doesn't produce results.

Much like self-care itself, an empathetic response mostly serves to help someone relieve stress and feel good, but from a practical standpoint, it's often unproductive and doesn’t change the situation. However, it can empower a person to stay motivated and keep trying, it can improve their self-confidence and to see hope in a situation, and it can help them fight back against cognitive distortions.

And it just so happens that Logan identifies this as a root issue in the episode, when he tells Thomas, "You are fixating on a situation that is making you feel especially insecure. And that situation is out of your control. Dealing with this messy apartment would make you feel more secure, but it's also stressing you out because there's a lot to do, and you don't want to do it. All of that is a perfect recipe for intrusive thoughts, which you are not particularly well-equipped to handle right now given your low self-esteem."

So Logan can see that the correct approach should be an empathetic one, but he also knows that Thomas asked him to help him solve the problem of getting his apartment cleaned up, so he instead applied a pragmatic approach that would produce results. But the underlying reason to why Thomas asked him to do that was because he was feeling bad about the text situation, meaning he actually needed an empathetic approach, but he didn't tell Logan this.

This constant circling leads Logan to using an improper approach to handle the situation, which only leaves him frustrated when it doesn't work. He chose the approach that Thomas wanted and asked him to use rather than the one he needed.

And the more Logan tries to get his approach to work, the more he has to stop altogether because Thomas’ situation is only worsening, so he needs those breaks. With each break, Logan has to sacrifice the progress that should have been made, and since he had agreed to help, that lack of progress is his fault. And the more this keeps happening, the more frustrated Logan gets because he was using this method by Thomas' request despite it not being what Thomas needed, and in the end, Thomas makes very little progress but manages to achieve his true goal all along, which was to 'feel good'. He's so quick to dismiss everything he asked Logan for help with because the schedule meant nothing to him all along, and all he really wanted was to feel better.

And it definitely seems like Remus picked up on this from the get-go, considering his actions at both the start and end of the episode seemed more focused on bothering and impeding Logan than they did Thomas.

Logan was only trying to help, he listened and took what Thomas had to say into account to apply the desired approach, and he only gave suggestions and solutions because he’d been asked to give them. And yet, because he had chosen the wrong approach (because Logan has learned to give Thomas what he wants more than what he needs), the method didn't work and it only made Thomas' situation worse. On par with all the signs of unsolicited advice, Logan had taken into account what he was supposed to do instead, but this situation challenged all that, because it didn't bother to acknowledge Logan's side of things. The disrespect, lack of appreciation for any efforts he made, and the dismissal of his goals ultimately left Logan at a huge disadvantage, all because he tried to do what Thomas asked him to do.

At the end of the episode, when Logan speaks with Remus in an attempt to get him to understand his methods, he offers that "perhaps you could also see the merit in what I'm trying to do" because he wants there to be recognition for his efforts (mostly from Thomas) since he's been trying to so hard to listen and adjust to what the others want of him. He wants there to be more equal levels of give-and-take, ones that absolutely do not exist at this point in the series.

And, of course, Remus’ response to him is to ignore him, which is the exact thing Logan has been dealing with all this time. It’s no wonder he finally lost his temper, but Remus also gets to the root of Logan’s issue here - that he mostly wants to direct that anger at Thomas.

Logan’s insistence in using a pragmatic approach has caused problems in the past, but also had its uses for particular situations. Logan’s resistance to empathetic approaches is likely directly related to his desire to ignore and dismiss his own emotions, and, like most people who use pragmatic approaches to problem-solving, he wants to avoid feeling pain.

Having to experience what others experience can be difficult and also painful, and when someone reaches out to ask for help, it can be a lot easier to want to find a way to end that suffering with a solution rather than feel that pain alongside them. Empathy is not easy to use, and Logan doesn’t want to use it, and likely isn’t even sure if he can use it effectively if he tried.

But, maybe, if someone tried using an empathetic approach with him first, one that actually applied empathy towards his situation (and not just what the others have experienced themselves and expect to work for him, too), he may better understand why it can be so important and how improvement doesn't always have to be about results.

But, in the meantime, Logan is only going to do what Thomas wants.

But since Thomas doesn’t know what he wants, it’s even harder to know the right way to help him.

#logan sanders #sanders sides #sanders sides analysis #ts logan #working through intrusive thoughts #sorry for how long this is but i couldn't help it #and yes i am biased about pragmatic responses having merit in certain situations even if you do still need to apply empathy #thomas and the others need to realize that logan cares even if he's not doing things the exact right way #long post #orbs thought bubbles #thank you ame for inspiring me to finally post this after rewriting it a bunch of times <3

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