Tim Carey (1023.1430)
Back again, I've just read "An Experiment with Levels" and have some
questions. This morning I was working with a 14 year old boy who is at
risk of being excluded from the school he currently attends. From my
meagre understanding of the paper I had read I thought I would play
around with the levels idea. The boy made a comment that it didn't
matter what he did in school now, he had a bad reputation and the
teachers always kicked him out (what level does a statement like that
represent). I asked him what he thought about thinking something like
that. Understandably he gave me a strange kind of a look and asked me
what I meant. I clarified as best I could and we continued the
converstation in a similar vein. I must admit I didn't really know
what I was doing but I thought I had some idea of what I wanted at the
end (is that PCT at work). Eventually (after 5-10 minutes) he said
that on the one hand he thinks that things will never get better and
he may as well quit while he's ahead, and on the other hand he thinks
that if he quits now he'll never get anywhere. Is this the kind of
internal conflict Powers was referring to in the paper? What level of
perception does a statement like this represent? And what do I then do
with a statement like that? Where do I go?
Am I even close to the mark with what was meant in the 1972 paper?
Thanks again,
Tim