An open frame dialogue 

Ideé Fixe (psychology) // An object of obsession or passion that one fixates on, ranging from a harmless interest to a pathological delusion.

The concept of an idée fixe, a fixation so total it becomes the lens for everything else, is something we've all experienced but maybe never put an exact name toward. It's the same fatigue that comes with a predictable archetype: the tech bro, the finance bro/girl boss, the girl obsessed with finding a man, the person obsessed with looks. The through line is the collapsing of a multidimensional range into a narrow, singular identity.

In a capitalistic and optimized society, dedicating or committing to a singular identity and expression can easily be seen as useful or a clean path toward whatever proximity to success you're after. But on an emotional level, we tend to find it dull. Less intriguing. Predictable but safe and comfortable. It's harder to manufacture interest you don't have when engaging with the effect of fixation, whereas before the collapse, identity, differences, possibilities, and optionalities could fuse easily into conversation. Seemingly less to engage with.

I think this idea becomes increasingly relevant as we're plugged into personalized echo chambers and elusive algorithms, combined with less social connection in real life and higher susceptibility to parasocial online relationships and enmeshment with identity. It's jarring to watch the switch in someone, whether intentional, accidental, or a byproduct of becoming an assimilating adult, and to witness someone's range seemingly collapse in real time.

I keep saying "seemingly" because, as someone who advocates for multidimensionality, it's difficult to even conclude that it could be fully eroded or absent. It feels more honest to accept that as the limit of my own perception and proximity, not a verdict on someone else's interior life. I'm still stuck on the idea that we inherently contain multitudes, even when we don't express them, even when I can't sense them in another. To what extent? that's a different question for a different day. Regardless, I’ll always be open to learning and connecting with another regardless of the size of their lens on the world with the assumption of respect and reception.

Your inability to be easily packaged into an internet trend, an editorial grouping, a societal ideal, or an administrative category is not a problem to be dealt with or interrogated, nor is it something that indicates an incompleteness within you. It's the intentional design and shaping of your experiences and environment working for you, if you embrace it rather than resist it, and forcibly betray it by being anything other than true to that. I believe our internal discernment carries an innate appreciation for multitudes, even when our socialization has convinced us it's unsafe and to be skeptical of it.  It's most exemplified in our individual need and desire to be known and understood deeply and to be given grace and space to grow and change within our relationships.

Or maybe it's just people like me. Idk.