"People don't change" has been living rent-free in my head, help me.
I've been trying to understand what house really means when he says "people don't change". I remember instances in the show where House himself behaves in a way that directly contradicts this stance. Did house mean it as an absolute or as a general observation (a disposition)? I don't think i understand what he refers to as "change" here. Is physiological change that consequently results in a significant shift in a person's behavior not considered as a changed person? I've read some posts say that he means "people don't change, they become more of what they are", what does it even mean to become more of what we are, doesn't this assume there is a threshold or boundary or some kind of marker that indicates who we are concretely and that there is more to us? At first i thought that this doesn't hold because the act of introspection can make people think / act / behave differently but then again a person must be capable of introspection to begin with, making them more of what they are in some sense (assuming introspection is an inherent part of who they). Then there's the take that "people's internal motivations don't change", people change the medium through which they choose to express their motivations. I also remember house stating "Almost dying changes nothing while dying changes everything" which connects back to his belief that "people don't change". Another take is that he believes that "people don't change" as a diagnostic heuristic, he assumes "everybody lies" and if a diagnosis depends entirely on what a patient says then he treats that info as unreliable until independently verified (often involving breaking into houses lol).
I would love to hear your thoughts on which take(s) you guys resonate with or if you have any other takes, i would love to hear them :)