The receptiveness of human behaviour takes many forms.I can list a variety of repetitions (although by no means all-inclusive) that demonstratethe varying degrees of intensity or indifference, self-consciousness orinstictiveness, or human interactions with either the social environment or theself. The scale runs from ritual to routine to habit to addiction.They all represent attempts at survival, or endurance, whether physical orpsychic.
Elizabeth Burns maintains that 'Ritual.... consists of a series of actions,considered appropriate to certain situations and capable of generating appropriatereactions from others. They are... characterised by instrumentality and expressiveness'(Theatrically,217).(...) Ritual involves self-conscious act, concernedwith maintaining a faith in a course of personal action or in a socialsystem. As a self-conscious act, it tends to be aware of, or remind theperformer of. The symbolic or metaphorical nature of its repetitions. It can,of course, become empty ritual, when through repetition it tends to becomereified or literal; the larger picture of what the symbols point to its lost inthe attention paid to externals. This indicates a certain loss of desire orwill to repeat, allowing one to slip into routine or habit. Only the willto repeat finds expression in ritual.
Routine, which Burns posits in distinction to ritual, 'is a formalised wayof dealing with recurrent actions and events which a person regards asnecessary (i.e. has learned to regard as socially incumbent) but with which hedoes not feel deeply involved' (216) Most of society's existence dependsupon routine. The effectiveness of the operations of routine depends upon somewhatdetached attitude in their performance. Too much psychic investment in simpleroutines can throw the system or oneself off balance. Routine requires half-consciousnessbehaviour. It is, says Burns, 'inexpressive'. I think it can beexpressive within the limitations of the behaviour, but in its most expressiveperformance, routine will often try to disguise itself as ritual.
'Habit is a compromise effected between the individual and his environmentor between the individual and his own organic eccentricities, the guarantee ofa dull inviolability the lighting conductor of his existence. Habit is theballast that chains the dog to his vomit' (Beckett, Proust, 7-8). Habit is also what defines us as having a predictablecharacter, either for ourselves or others. Habit is unself-conscious and operatesinstinctively. It is an established compromise between two adamant forces, andthe possessor of a habit feels threatened the moment its operations arequestioned. The level of emotional investment is higher in habit than inroutine. But is more grounded as well, the “lightening-conductor of hisexistence.”
Addiction is not expressive but ingestive. It is self-consumingas well as substance consuming. It is unconscious behaviour; even though onecan become conscious of it, continued addictive behaviour always defeats that consciousness.What may begin as the enhancement of the senses ends as anaesthetization againstany life not covered by the repetition of addiction. As we move from ritual toaddiction, the level of self-consciousness decreases, as does the ability toalter the conditions of the form of repetition. Does the center of investmentmove from a more embodied one, in path from ritual to addiction, or does itmove in the opposite direction? The sensitized self-consciousness of ritual maybe more “embodied” than the desensitizing repetitions of addiction. Yet boothritual and addiction use the body in certain ways kin order to try to transcendthe body.
