A person who can be influenced is very often perceived as someone who is docile, flexible, malleable, and even manipulable. What is scary about being influenced is above all losing your freedom and feeling manipulated. Finally, it can also be positive to be influenced: because, as the philosopher Thibaut de Saint-Maurice believes, “we need others to become who we are«.

A person who can be influenced can allow himself to be governed in his psychic dispositions, his moral and intellectual opinions, even his modes of expression. And so, Roger Vailland, in Funny game, wrote: “She proved to be easily influenced, quite a woman on whom the male imposes his will“. We can, in fact, suffer from having a too gentle character, to always agree with everyone, to be silent even if something displeases us. How to change ?

«If you happen to let yourself be influenced by others, try to determine what made you give in.“, Suggests the website of L’Etudiant Trendy. Maybe a relationship is putting you at a disadvantage? So start by identifying the different situations in which you are particularly under the influence… This will already be a first step in freeing yourself from them! And, for that, it is in particular essential to know how to say “no” when a situation displeases you …

In life, it seems essential to learn to think for yourself. Each one will find, will forge, thus, its own truth. And this is the idea at the heart of Descartes’ philosophy: “I think so I am“. The expression of the cogito implies that a subject is free when he thinks for himself and makes his own choices, receiving only himself.

Moreover, a century later, against superstition and religious fanaticism, the whole of the philosophy of the Enlightenment, from that of Rousseau in France to that of Kant in Germany, builds this freedom to think as an ideal. Thibaut de Saint-Maurice specified, on France Inter, that such an aspiration aimed “to emancipate himself, to free himself from all his tutelage by daring to use his own reason to think for himself«.

A similar desire: that of having freedom as the only guide, is also expressed in Asli Erdogan. For the Turkish novelist, in fact, the power of literature constitutes an ultimate bulwark against tyrannies. The writer says: “I think of my writing this way: I just send a few words, and sometimes, often, a cannonball pops up in return to crush me. Why such a violent reaction? Probably because of my inability to identify with anyone and with power, whoever it is“. Freedom is born from his pen. It does not allow itself to be influenced by the power in place, the winner. She does not want to be an accomplice nor “of the assassination of men, nor of that of words«.

The Power of Words: For each of us, reading is, of course, a great way to forge our own free and informed thinking. It is therefore by choosing a good book, and by stopping the continuous flow of images which is provided to us by television and by Internet, that we manage to exercise our critical sense! Reading, words, provide the time and thought necessary to form your own opinions… Whatever the subject.

There are various situations where the influence of another, particularly illustrious character, can play a positive role. Take the case of Magic Johnson, a famous American basketball player well known in the 80s and 90s: when he publicly announced, in 1991, his seropositivity for HIV, the various telephone switchboards for listening and helping patients with the disease. AIDS calls go from 7000 calls to 1,5 million calls! We can therefore see that the player’s influence has been greatly positive: patients now agree to reveal themselves, and therefore to be able to receive help …

In addition, any artist generally also has the habit of declaring “his influences“… Whether musical, artistic, literary. When a journalist interviews, for example, a writer, a painter or a singer, it is very common that he asks him the question of the influences he has received. And these are perceived as positive, participating in the construction of their art, which is therefore also based on the experience and talent of the oldest. An artist can thus rely on other great ones, supporting his own personal work and his own quest… Who would blame a painter for claiming to be influenced by Matisse or Picasso?

The essayist Thibaut de Saint-Maurice believes that “it is impossible to get rid of all influence“. He suggests, moreover, that this is even a good thing: “We do not live alone on our island. We are easily influenced and influenced because we need others to become who we are.The philosopher thinks, moreover, that there is no possible rooting, nor even possible collective life, possible cultural or social belonging without influence.

He concludes: “There is a good side to being able to be influenced and to being influenced, which is that we learn that we receive ourselves from others as much as we constitute ourselves!”From this perspective, the real challenge is ultimately to know what we do with these influences that affect us …