A

Mercy Strategy 41

reminded Mercy thought of the experience with the
school play, and brought back all the feelings associated
with that event.
It is this ability to relate the present to the emotional
past which allows the Mercy person to empathize with
others or show „mercy‟ to them. When the Mercy
observes other people, he is reminded of how he felt
when he was in similar situations. The Mercy is the
person who will see the dog trying to scratch a hard-to-
reach spot and find himself reaching in sympathy with
the animal. When we identify with a hero in sports, with
an actor in a movie, or with some object of religious
worship, it is because our Mercy part is relating
emotionally to the focus of attention.
The Mercy person, who is conscious in Mercy mode, is the best at
sensing nonverbal communication. Inside his head, he „sees‟ subtle clues in
the environment triggering emotional memories. Therefore he notices the
atmosphere of a restaurant, for instance, and is constantly reading meaning
into the facial expressions of others.
I have mentioned that Mercy thought uses associative processing. I
suggest that associative thinking works with connections and labels. The
diagram below shows three memories, A, B and C, each represented by a
dot. The arrows which point up or down show the labels associated with
these three memories, and the lines between the dots show how they are
connected. With Mercy processing, the memories are concrete experiences
and the labels describe emotion.A

Experience A is a new experience.

It reminds Mercy thought of memories B

and C.

B feels fairly good. C feels very bad.

Experience A ends up feeling fairly bad.

A is stored with this emotional label.

A now helps evaluate other experiences.

A Perceiver strategy is also associative. We will see that with Perceiver

thought, the memories are abstract facts and the labels measure confidence.
However, the type of thinking in both cases is associative.

C

A B