What are your biggest responsibilities to others? Under what circumstances would you put those responsibilities in a lower priority? (Please read details).

Some people are held in place by responsibilities to others. They might not change their circumstances no matter how hard things were, because they would feel that was shirking those responsibilities. Responsibility to self is in second place (if one can even say that one has a responsibility to self instead of just calling it selfishness).

Perhaps others are willing to take drastic action to change their lives because their responsibility to self is more important to them than their responsibility to others. In this process, they would fail to meet their responsibilities to others. Think “deadbeat” dads. What allows them to leave their kids behind? Please don’t say “selfishness.” That is not helpful. I’m looking for deeper analysis.

I’m looking for a description of the kind of thinking that would allow someone to make a choice to put themselves before others they have obligations to. I would like to know what kind of childhood experiences they might have had that would enable them to make this choice.