Flexibility would mean identity changes without any critical test

Evidence

The explosions in question are clearly understood as energetic discharges, creative bursts that progressively transform nature into freedom. To insist on explosive surges is to say that we are not flexible in the sense that all change of identity is a critical test, which leaves some traces, effaces others, resists its own test, and tolerates no polymorphism. — Catherine Malabou, What Should We Do with Our Brain?, 245

Categorization

• XREF: Core to the reader’s goal: here is the definitional heart distinguishing explosive plasticity from docile, traceless flexibility.
• DEFINE: Defines plasticity by contrast: it resists its test and leaves traces, whereas pure flexibility tolerates any polymorphism.