Cognitive Styles 17If I decide later on that I do not appreciate what it is doing, the only way to
stop it from working is to throw „sand in the gears‟—to cripple it with
sufficient mental trash.
I have stated that each person is conscious in one and only one mental
„room‟ and that all of the other „rooms‟ are under the surface. The situation
is actually a little more complicated than this. Some of the „rooms‟ are
aware of some of the other „rooms.‟ If you look at the diagram of mental
symmetry, you will notice various lines and arrows connecting certain
modes of thought. These links indicate which rooms can see into which
other rooms. For instance, you will notice a line running from Exhorter to
Teacher and from Exhorter to Mercy: This means that it is possible to look
from the Exhorter „room‟ into both the Teacher and the Mercy „rooms.‟ On
the other hand there is no line or arrow pointing from any of the other four
„rooms‟ to the Exhorter „room‟ (there is only an arrow heading away from
the Exhorter). Therefore, the Exhorter room cannot see either the
Contributor, Perceiver, Server, or Facilitator rooms. These modes of
thought may influence what happens in the Exhorter „room‟—they may
send „food‟ up from the „kitchen,‟ but Exhorter strategy will not be able to
see the source of this influence—it will not notice how this „food‟ is being
prepared.
I have listed in a table exactly which rooms are aware of which other
rooms. For instance, if you look at the Perceiver „room,‟ you will see that it
can see the Mercy room. This means two things: First, the Perceiver person
is aware of subconscious Mercy thought. Second, the Perceiver part in
every person is aware of Mercy thought. In contrast, you will see that the
Mercy room cannot see any of the other rooms. This tells us first that the
Mercy person is only aware of Mercy thought, and then that Mercy
strategy in every person lives in an isolated mental environment, unaware
of other modes of thought.
Mental Room Other Rooms Visible from this Room
Mercy None, influenced by Perceiver
Teacher None, influenced by Server
Perceiver Mercy
Server Teacher
Exhorter Teacher and Mercy
Contributor Perceiver, Server, Exhorter, some Mercy
and some Teacher
Facilitator Limited awareness of all other rooms
I suggest that many problems and misunderstandings arise because we
assume that other people think exactly as we do. Suppose that I am a
Mercy person. It will be obvious to me that all situations should be
approached with Mercy thought, because I am consciously aware of that
type of thinking. I will also find it equally obvious that the other six ways