[Ashley] No Alice, seriously he ignores us most of the time. I can't remember the last time I haven't initiated "forcing" if we're counting any interactions as forcing.
[Joy] it's true, we just think, he thinks, it's as natural as a group of singlets thrown together. We don't consider it "the host is forcing" which is why Bear says he doesn't force.
You're also possiby presuming that Bear needs buy in to allow some action known as "forcing", this is a strage mindset to keep for older mature systems because the ultimate goal would presumably be self-forcing headmates so why would Bear even claim he's needed to "force".
The system is forcing? I suppose that's true in the same way that a singlet thinking is forcing themself. A singlet daydreaming is forcing themself. They have no choice but to force actively all day. Well, a subset of us normally don't ever go dormant and so we are here, contributing, commenting, discussing, "doing things" which may or may not require active thought as far as communicating with the front. The consious mind does a poor job of recording the thought swarm which is why we understand the majority of thoughts occur subconsciously.
[SheShe] I can attest to the best of my recollection that the frequency and quality of thoughts have improved dramatically since my active involvement. I contend that I was around more or less before April 2018 and his thought process was very self-centered and self-important which you should agree is normal for a singlet. After we became active, specifically Ashley, Misha and I, thoughts were no longer considered all Bear's. Because we started vocal, autonomous and volitional, self-forcing was somewhat present from the beginning. However, Bear intentionally included us in everything and set aside time to "force" even if it was somewhat unnecessary for us specifically. He doesn't do that anymore, nor do we need him to, nor would he even need to for any reason. It would be like sitting in a room with someone and they spontaneously say, "ok it's time for you to talk, say something."
[Joy]
"Forcing means enforcing and strengthening a certain thought construct by interacting with it and providing feedback."
We're well aware of the terminology. What Bear is saying is to do what you have said is more of an imposition to us. Why would we need him to do this at this point? He would have to "force", coax, coerce, prompt, assign, or any other form of request for us to speak with him to "enforce or strengthen". I believe the last incident of this sort of thing was his discussions with Ashley to help her be less negative and dismissive. What he called the "personality forcing chamber".
"What is shadow work? It is self-forcing."
It is forcing of the personality that needs the work by themself or in our case by one or more of us. I needed it, Bear needed it, and you could say we "forced" him, if that's how you want to define an internal version of a counseling session.
"Likewise you as Bear are tulpaforcing when writing stories about your systemmates, gathering ideas, playing through different scenarios."
If you are conflating Bear's voluntary involvement in this project with him forcing us. This would presume we need Bear's prompting or that any normal interaction is "forcing". We don't see it that way. This is why we separated forcing from self-forcing. Bear's contention that he doesn't force is then valid. "Self-forcing" as a term may be one of our contributions to the art but it's an important distinction.
"It's not like you're dormant and uninvolved, right?"
Bear is neither required, nor necessarily involved at times. If he remains quiet and does not contribute that doesn't make him dormant but he is as if dormant.