The product of dealing with reality is the content of our brains, both material and immaterial. The grey matter and the things we trust, expect, suspect, predict, believe and intend. I have tried to describe and explain how this works, in private and in public. My theory is, following Bergson, that sensing and knowing set the stage, paint the picture and bring out the magic. We are both sensing ànd knowing organisms in a sensed and known environment (figure 1).
figure 1
The environment produced us and as sensing organisms we are still instinctively connected to it. We produced the known environment and as knowing organisms we are still intellectually connected to it. So there are 4 basic entities, each having powers of its own, I shall work with:
The 'now & here' is a point that changes content over time, as the organism and the environment 'roll' (which is why I call it the 'roll-model'). All points together thus form a flat surface or field. So there are two flat surfaces, one for the points of interaction between sEnv and sOrg, and another one, virtually at the same location, between kOrg and kEnv.
<
figure 2
Where the organism and the environment touch, things change. Actually, what is known is adapted to what is sensed or vice versa (figure 2). Then which is it? It can only be one of these two and they cannot be true simultaneously. Which one it is, depends on the dynamics of exploration or social interaction.
The organism, as a source, somehow translates information from sOrg into kOrg. The environment, as an object, is formed or deformed by our actions, from kEnv into sEnv, on the opposite side. These transformations, together with the adaptations, are drawn as grey arrows, forming a cycle (figure 3).
figure 3
kEnv 'rolls' 360° around kOrg, as kOrg is able to. This I call 'Multi-Perspectivism' (MP), since kEnv is seen from all sides, before the mind's eye. Simultaneously, sOrg 'rolls' 360° around sEnv, as sOrg must, like a trip around the world. This is called 'Object-Orientation' (OO).
MP produces a changing image, because the organism moves and the environment does not. OO produces the same changing image, because the environment moves and the organism does not. We pick up bits of information or put them down into facts when they are intentions. They are positioned on the same surface of impressions and expressions, to shape images and grow as roots from one image in time to the next (figure 4).
figure 4
The system is governed either by the environment, or by ourselves. Then what reverses, is only the direction of the adaptation. In social interaction, the side of the initiative changes. If the situation was that the field created by the interacting sEnv and sOrg, had copied itself onto the one of kOrg and kEnv, then now this situation has turned around and copying starts in the opposite direction. That is, expressions are matched by impressions and vice versa.
Suppose that the environment is another person. Then we ourselves, as an organism (sOrg and kOrg), are 'mirrored' on the other side of the shared environment (kEnv and sEnv) in 'the Other'. Both organisms, Self and Other, draw the same information from their shared environment (figure 5). Both our, possibly different, social realities, ought be reducible to the same physical reality (L. Festinger, 1950; M. Turner, 1968).
However, the ideal of independent confirmation can not always be accomplished, especially when social reality is taking over from physical reality. Nobody can claim to have seen God, or society, physically, so their definitions must stem from social reality, or communication about the concepts. sEnv is now directly what the Other says or how he behaves: sOrg. And adaptation then is either in dominant- or in submissive mode.
figure 5
Although the signal travels past 4 stations in each person in the dyad of Self and Other, either from sEnv to kEnv, or from kOrg to sOrg, the responses still are practically immediate. You might think of it as a pixel on a screen that is turned on. When two people interact, the question is, who determines the traveling direction: from Self to Other (Self dominant & Other submissive) or vice versa (Other dominant & Self submissive) .
In PMM the bits of information and facts are called Notes. You can position them on Sheets and link them by Relations of all types. A sheet is one perspective and orientation you have on your environment at a time. You decide how many Notes, Sheets and Relations you need, as long as you want, to bring about your own sensible, knowledgeable reality.
The Sheets appear one by one and they are all slightly different (figure 4). Not only because the Notes are put into slightly different positions, integrate into nodes or differentiate into separate threads, but also because the perspective changes. Thus, your orientation towards the object (environment) changes and so do your perspectives. This is what PMM can bring out for you (figure 6).
figure 6
I assume that social interactions between a dominant Other and the submissive Self or vice versa, aims at the education or indoctrination of the individual (Self or Other), being a dependent group member at least in the current dyad. Impressions flow from one source (Self or Other) and are expected to be reproduced so that deviance is minimal. Dependent confirmation therefore is simply conformation.
Within groups, individual opinion is thus strengthened. Between groups, individuals with strengthened opinions do not reproduce nor dependently confirm each other. Instead, they aim for independent confirmation of their own strengthened opinions. That is, if they do not force them onto each other. This aspect of social interaction seems to be featuring in new politics and new journalism. Now, in figure 7, Constructive Recollection (CR) consists of the following five phases:
figure 7
Although the process is natural, I am still 'able' to divert from it, when I lose my sense of relevance, culture, self-respect, ability to communicate. So there should be an inclination to relearn these basics. Stay on track and follow the trail back to its origins. Bergson (1932) wrote: "Go go back in the direction from where the driving force came and you will regain strength". Once I am back on track, these steps disappear from my conscious radar, back into their natural somnambulism.
I would now like to describe these phases in the continuous process of CR in full, that is, constructively recollecting all the bits and pieces from my collection. Let's see if the logic holds..
Ron C. de Weijze
21 August 2007 - 01 May 2008
social psychological researcher and software developer
Amsterdam, Netherlands
PMM website
