PERCEIVER STRATEGY
We will start our discussion of the Perceiver person by taking another
look at the diagram of mental symmetry. Notice that the word „Perceiver‟
is at the top right of the first diagram. The top axis tells us that the
Perceiver is associative; the left axis shows that the Perceiver works with
abstract data; finally, the diagonal indicates that the Perceiver uses
confidence to evaluate information.
Associative Thought
Notice that both the Mercy and the Perceiver persons think
associatively. Their thoughts are constantly bouncing from one memory to
another. When the analytical person reads a book, he starts from page one
and reads through until the end. The associative person, in contrast, may
start in the middle, thumb through a few pages here and there, see if the
story has a good ending, and then go back to the beginning. This difference
in approach became very clear to me during the time that I, an associative
Perceiver person, worked together with my brother, an analytical Teacher
person. I would typically begin my analysis of a problem at the easiest
point, even if it was right in the middle. On the other hand, my brother
started at the beginning, regardless of the difficulty.
While the Mercy and Perceiver persons use the same type of thinking,
the information which they process is quite different. The Mercy person
works with concrete data—images, pictures, and real events. He looks at
the windows on a barn, for instance, and sees a face with half-closed eyes
leering out at him. He notices the body language of another individual and
is reminded of experiences involving personal acceptance and rejection. He
plays around with real objects in order to get a feeling for how they interact.
Both Mercy and Perceiver persons think associatively.
The Mercy associates between experiences with emotional labels.
The Perceiver associates between facts with labels of confidence.The Perceiver person, on the other hand, deals with abstract
information; he associates between facts and concepts. He does not work
with the experience itself, but rather with the idea behind the experience.
Just as the mind of the Mercy individual is constantly jumping from one
experience to another, so the Perceiver person‟s mind is continually
bouncing between ideas. Let me illustrate with the help of a joke.
Question: “Why are fire trucks red?” Answer: “Because fire trucks have
four people and eight wheels. Four plus eight is twelve. There are twelve