28 A Programmer’s Guide to the Mind
associative. Rather, Facilitator strategy operates by blending and mixing
between various aspects of abstract and concrete thought.A
Remember that a mental „room‟ describes either a way of thinking
which is present in all people, or else the specific way of thinking which is
conscious in a certain cognitive style. This means that the diagram of
mental symmetry can be approached in one of two ways: First, we can use
it to summarize the conscious traits of a specific cognitive style. For
example, notice that Mercy strategy is described as associative, concrete
and emotional. This means that the Mercy person is conscious in a mode of
thought which associates between concrete experiences and which
evaluates each experience using emotion. In other words, the Mercy person
lives in a world of feelings, where every situation brings to mind similar
experiences from the past. This leads naturally to a sense of
appropriateness and etiquette, as the network of concrete memories colors
the reaction to the present. Notice also that the Mercy room is not aware of
any other modes of thought. This means that not only does the Mercy
person live in an internal world of experiences and feelings, but he is
mentally aware only of this one mental world. See how many character
traits we have extracted even with the little that we know so far?
Second, we can use the diagram to describe how the mind operates in
all cognitive styles. Every person with a normal brain has all seven modes
of thought, and the lines in the diagram describe the major connections
between these different mental modes.B It is important to remember that
when we use the term Server, for instance, we can be referring either to the
mode of thought which is conscious in the Server person, or to the Server
mode of thinking which is present in every person. In this book, when we
are referring to a person with a specific cognitive style, we will talk about
the Server person, or the Teacher person. On the other hand, when we are
describing the functioning of a certain mode of thought, we will use words
like Mercy mode, Perceiver strategy, or Exhorter thought.
AA general principle: Each „room‟ seems to have the same total amount of
mental awareness of thinking and memory. The Mercy and Teacher rooms
are most aware of thought but see the least memories. In contrast, the
Facilitator room sees most memories but his awareness of thought is
limited.
B Brain damage can cripple or destroy certain modes of thought, depending
upon where the injury occurs. The effect of brain damage will often
depend upon the cognitive style of a person. If conscious thought can be
used to compensate for disabled mental strategies, then the mental
deficiency will not appear as severe. Also, if one part of the brain is
destroyed, it may be possible to relearn many tasks using alternate
strategies.