The Varieties of Procrastination: with Different Existential Positions Different Reasons for it

Instead of considering procrastination as a unitary construct we argue that it takes different forms and has multiple explanations and determinants. While it is fair to consider procrastination a cognitive focusing issue, we posit that the motivational sources for this vary depending on where someone can be located with regard to the "existential" developmental positions that have been explicated over many years by Object Relations clinical theorists: the autistic-contiguous, paranoid-schizoid, depressive, and transcendental. These positions generate different understandings of what motivates procrastination and in turn, effects the interventions we offer. We note both clinical and commonplace examples.