A

Mercy Strategy 53

understanding which come from subconscious thought, as it grows from
this base, will probably be unpleasant and condemning.
Second, and looking further at symptoms, if the Mercy person blocks
off portions of subconscious thinking, by walling off their base within
conscious Mercy thought, he loses conscious access to their abilities. For
instance, any task which is related to words and understanding will
become much more difficult, because subconscious Teacher strategy is
now working partly on its own and no longer cooperating fully with
conscious Mercy thought. Therefore the schizophrenic person will find it
harder to read, listen and understand speech, and will experience more
difficulty in tying together the individual elements of sight into the „big
picture‟ of understanding.
Third, the thinking which the Mercy person does do consciously will
no longer receive as much corrective guidance from the rest of the mind—
obviously, since a mental wall has been built at the foundation of mental
integration. Therefore, the schizophrenic Mercy person will be free to
follow emotional flights of fancy, and will flit from one defining
experience to another, unrestricted by limitations of logic or reason.A There
can be incredible theories about me and personal identity, with no basis in
fact or reality.
For the Mercy person, the decision to pull back from unpleasant
experiences is usually a conscious one. Our observation suggests that most
schizophrenics have the cognitive style of Mercy—it is the mode of
thought with conscious control over Mercy strategy. However, it is also
possible in some cases for other personality types to acquire the disease.
Shell shock, for example, is a temporary form of schizophrenia which can
occur in any person. In this case, the recurring horror of war eventually
causes subconscious Mercy thought to reject the experiences of the
external world and to retreat mentally to safety.

Multiple Personalities

I have suggested that memories which join together become „alive.‟ I
would like to illustrate this concept of mental „life‟ with the help of another
mental illness which also seems to affect almost exclusively the Mercy
person. Schizophrenia, it turns out, starts when a teenage Mercy person
decides to pull back to mental safety. If, in contrast, the Mercy person
mentally retreats from danger at an earlier age, then I suggest that the
result is multiple personalities. The reason is simple. Any Mercy split
which occurs later in life can only be partial, since subconscious thought

A When we look at the interaction between Perceiver and Mercy strategies,

we will see exactly why it is that logic goes out of the window. I know
from personal experience that it is totally impossible to use logical
reasoning with a schizophrenic individual.