What does it mean to be vulnerable?

What does it mean to be vulnerable? 1. First of all, vulnerability implies that one is affectable and thus changeable in the broadest sense. Someone who is vulnerable is not clearly fixed and has not reached a stable identity or final state. This person's identity is still in flux and can be affected. Or, expressed differently, the vulnerable being remains accessible to others (affectability, unfinished identity). 2. At the same time, vulnerability implies a threat. The vulnerable person is constantly in danger (destructive potential). 3. Vulnerability thus implies a reactivity to injuries: the vulnerable being has some basic awareness of injury and so develops pref-erences to avoid injury and strategies to escape the source of danger. The state of vulnerability, one may conclude, suggests to the individual the goals of avoidance and of healing after actual wounding (seeking protection, immunization). 4 Whoever is vulnerable, one may further assume, learns to eval-uate the environment for its potential danger. The individual registers a stimulus coming from outside and recognizes its influence (value standard, evaluative learning). 5. Paradoxically, this structure can imply a degree of danger-seeking as well, as the vulnerable being is probing what causes injury to increase awareness. There may be further implications for traumatic restaging of the scene of wounding (traumatic return).

— from The Flight Plan (Purpose/Wisdom/Risk) · Narrative Brain: the Stories Our Neurons Tell by Fritz Breithaupt

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