To adequately understand a person, or oneself, one must discover what are the most significant experiences which are controlled. An application of PCT, called Method of Levels Therapy, helps one do this.
**Importance: This provides a key for understanding oneself and others. **
Read literally, this is a very interesting extrapolation from what is usually said about MoL, which is namely that one resolves intrapersonal conflict, and that such conflict is the root of psychological distress. It may indeed be true that MoL can be a way to solve the central problem of one’s life-purpose.
That is interesting. PCT / MOL promises to unite the old unity of psychotherapy and pastoral / ethical counseling. It can help you to find your highest goals and streamline your actions to fit with them. That should lead to permanent happiness.
However this vision leaves me wonder are my or anyone’s highest goals still the right ones or best possible. Perhaps not. Not necessarily. Then hopefully some disturbances make us reorganize them to something better. I think one speciality of being a human
is that we can disturb ourselves.
adequately understand a person, or oneself, one must discover what are the most significant experiences which are controlled. An application of PCT, called Method of Levels Therapy, helps one do this.
**Importance: This provides a key for understanding oneself and others. **
Read literally, this is a very interesting extrapolation from what is usually said about MoL, which is namely that one resolves intrapersonal conflict, and that such conflict is the root of psychological distress. It may indeed be true that MoL can be
a way to solve the central problem of one’s life-purpose.
As I understand it, MoL really needs a fairly stable higher-level
for which the perception(s) could be controlled by different means
(atenfels) than the lower level controllers that are in conflict. I
don’t think it can have much to say about changes at the highest
level. At least in standard HPCT, there’s no way to alter the
highest level reference values dynamically.
Do you think there is a possible definition of “right” for a highest
level goal, other than that it improves control and survivability
over what they would be in the absence of controlling that
perception to that reference value? Who determines what is “right”?
“Best possible” has the same problem. Without exploring the whole
enormous space of possible perceptions to control and possible
reference values for them, how can the optimum ever be discovered? Since we all, from bacteria to fungi to trees to fish to humans,
control our perceptions in a continuously changing environment, is
there any guarantee that what would be “best possible” on Tuesday
would still be “best possible” on Thursday? What evolution seems to
do is provide a population with a variety of choices, some of which
are good enough to survive through generations, while some are not.
Our ethical and moral goals are among these choices. Those that
survive are those that have so far allowed populations in which they
are common to continue to exist. A highest goal of “murder everyone
you see” would not be likely to be held by many people in a
long-lasting community! Our actions change the environment for
future controlling by ourselves and others (the science of this is
called “stigmergy”, though it is usually not treated within a
control-theoretic conceptual framework – it usually is concerned
with things like pheromone trails left by ants, or ruts that
constrain wheels on roads). Martin
···
On 2017/05/22 1:03 PM, Eetu Pikkarainen
wrote:
Bruce
That is interesting. PCT / MOL promises to unite the old
unity of psychotherapy and pastoral / ethical counseling. It can
help you to find your highest goals and streamline your actions
to fit with them. That should lead to permanent happiness.
However this vision leaves me wonder are my or anyone's
highest goals still the right ones or best possible.
Perhaps not. Not necessarily. Then hopefully some
disturbances make us reorganize them to something better. I
think one speciality of being a human is that we can disturb
ourselves.
understand a person, or oneself, one must discover what
are the most significant experiences which are
controlled. An application of PCT, called Method of
Levels Therapy, helps one do this.
** Importance:
This provides a key for understanding oneself and
others. **
Read literally, this is a very interesting
extrapolation from what is usually said about MoL, which
is namely that one resolves intrapersonal conflict, and
that such conflict is the root of psychological distress.
It may indeed be true that MoL can be a way to solve the
central problem of one’s life-purpose.