[Neurons] 2021 Neurons #34 HOW META CREATES PSYCHO-LOGICS

[Michael Hall]

From: L. Michael Hall

2021 Neurons #34

June 14, 2021

A Meta Series #4

 

HOW META CREATES

YOUR PSYCHO-LOGICS

 

In the last article in the Meta Series, I mentioned that "going meta" is
dynamic.  It's a dynamic process with lots of hidden and unconscious things
occurring within it.  I ended that article alluding to the process of how
your internal psychological-logic works: 

"And as a dynamic process, moving to a meta-position about other internal
experiences (thoughts, feelings, ideas, memories, decisions, imaginations,
and on and on) then puts them into new categories and classes and creates an
internal psychological-logic."

 

"Psycho-logics" came from Science and Sanity.  In 1933 Alfred Korzybski took
the word psychology and hyphened it; that created psycho-logics  and
psycho-logicians.  By separating the term, he then described more fully the
kind of logic (or logics) that is inherent in psychology.  He noted that
"the logic" any given person uses for thinking about and reasoning about
something was almost never formal logic.  Instead it was the unique and
idiosyncratic "logic" or the thinking that each person does at any moment of
time.  That's why it is plural- logics.

 

The particular psycho-logics that you use to make sense of something,
understand it, reason about it depends on the kind and quality of thinking
that you bring to it.  Bring a child's way of thinking and presto, you use
childish "logic" that will make sense to a five-year old or thirteen year
old, and which will be full of cognitive distortions.  Any given person's
psycho-logics depends on that person's use of his thinking patterns as he
"makes sense" of things.  He goes meta with his thinking patterns- using
them to reason about, interpret, and explain things through those lens.

 

Example.  A mother gives a little boy a slice of chocolate cake when he
brings home a B on his report card.  "You're such a good boy, you did so
well, I'm so proud of you- here is a slice of chocolate cake to show my
love."  Seems innocent enough.  The mother is simply thinking, "Reinforce
good behavior, give a reward."  But how is the boy thinking?  It depends on
his internal psycho-logics.  Suppose with his childish mind he thinks,
"Getting a slice of chocolate cake means being loved; I feel loved as I
receive the cake."  He could be thinking all of that unconsciously.
Consciously, he just feels good and associates "chocolate cake" with "love."
Cause-effect.

 

Forty years later, the boy is a 48-year old man, overweight, in bad health,
and cannot resist sweets, especially slices of chocolate cake.   The
therapist says, "What comes to mind when you think of a slice of chocolate
cake?"  Eventually self-awareness reveals his psycho-logics.  "Love."
"Being cared for, appreciated, rewarded."  Ah, the secondary gains for his
sweet tooth and unable to deny himself desserts.  Well, we call them
"secondary gains."  Actually, they are first level gains- the meta-level
values that he has established in his mind about sweets.  He has meta-stated
"a slice of chocolate cake" in such a way that it is now an item in the
category of Love.  It is a member of that class.   And if it is the only
member of that class, then he is really in for some difficulty in terms of
changing.

 

Your logic and logics (the way you reason, interpret things, make sense of
things) is a function of having gone meta where you established your
beliefs, values, criteria, references, etc.   It is almost never logical in
the sense of formal logic (Aristotelian logic, syllogisms, etc).  It is
almost always an emotional logic, a value logic, a subjective logic that
arises from your history of experiences and the learnings that you have made
from them.

 

This process of psycho-logics explains how each of us lives in our own
unique world of meaning.  It explains why you never know what meaning
structures you're going to find with any given person.  One person hears
"failure" and he has meta-stated it to mean that he is worthless and no
good.  Another person hears "failure" and thinks, "Great!  This means I'm
about to learn something new and useful!"  It's not the thing itself that
has meaning, it is the meaning-maker who imposes meaning upon things.   May
you meta-state some great meanings this week and develop a healthy and
vigorous psycho-logics for yourself!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D., Executive Director 

Neuro-Semantics 

P.O. Box 8

Clifton, CO. 81520 USA                             

               1 970-523-7877 

 

Books can be purchased at www.neurosemantics.com 

Many other PDF books can be purchased at "The Shop" on
www.neurosemantics.com 

 

131688 NeuroSemantics ThinkingMetaphoricalyCover FRONT

 

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