VALENCE SHIFTER

an action phrase that indicates the person should b e somebody else. (You're just like your father, don't be like Uncle Rudy, you're just like everybody else, you're exactly like Rover, you're nobody, you're not human, you're out of this world, you can't ever be yourself, I'll just have to pretend I'm somebody else, or I'll never be happy again.) See also action phrases and valence in this glossary. —Notes on the Lectures Glossary Final approval 26 March 1990

1. a valence shifter is anything that indicates the person should be somebody else, with such a phrase a person is liable to shift instantly into another valence. (NOTL, p. 110)2. a phrase which causes the individual to shift into another identity. The phrase "you ought to be in his shoes" and the phrase "you're just like your mother" are valence shifters, which change the preclear from his own identity into the whole identity of another person. (SOS, p. 106)3. the phrase known as the "valence shifter" may force the person to be in any or every valence (grouper), or may force him to be barred out of a valence (bouncer) so that he cannot imitate some human being such as father, who may have had very good qualities well worth imitating. Typical valence shifters are such phrases as "you're just like your father," "I'll have to pretend I'm somebody else." (SOS, Bk. 2, p. 201) (This term has since been used to also denote the name of an auditing action.)4. a list process to handle "out of valence." (HCOB 10 Sept 68)