322 A Programmer’s Guide to the Mind
Freud eventually responded by making them leave. In his eyes, they had
rejected Teacher understanding and therefore were found wanting. He was
the „true psychologist‟ and would only interact with those who practiced
„true psychology.‟
When we looked at Mercy thought, I suggested that there were three
reasons why the Mercy person tended to think that his definitions for „love‟
should apply to the rest of the world. I suggest that the same three reasons
can also convince the Teacher person that he has a corner on
„understanding.‟
First, there is the emotional reason. The Teacher person feels good
when his concepts fit together, and senses emotional pain when they fall
apart. When my personal feelings are sufficiently potent, it is easy to forget
that there are other individuals in the world with their own emotions. Thus,
the Teacher person who discovers a new general theory or faces a major
crisis in understanding can end up focusing completely upon his own
intellectual environment, to the exclusion of any other feelings. Of course,
we all do this to some extent, but the Teacher person lives within the room
of understanding. When his world of ideas turns upside-down, then he goes
topsy-turvy.
Second, not only does the Teacher person live within the mental room
of understanding, but he is unable to „see‟ into any of the other parts of the
mind. Just as the Mercy person is locked within the world of experiences,
so the Teacher individual sees nothing except Teacher theories. Unless an
explanation can in some way be formulated, therefore, in terms of current
Teacher order within complexity, the Teacher person simply will not
notice it, in the same way that the Mercy person will have real problems
grasping a concept without the help of some concrete example. The result
is that the Teacher person is constantly plaguing himself and others with
the question “Why?” A
Finally, like the Mercy individual, the Teacher person has the ability to
concentrate. The Teacher individual can focus on an idea and block out
distractions. His body may be sitting in the middle of a crowded room, but
his mind can be anywhere. When he decides to fixate upon some memory
in Teacher thought, then the subconscious parts of his mind are forced to
follow. The Perceiver and Server persons, as we shall see, do not have this
natural talent of concentration. Instead, their thoughts are constantly being
dragged here and there as their subconscious Teacher and Mercy strategies
A Little children also go through a “Why?” phase. While the question is the
same, I suggest that the desired response is different. The Teacher person
wants a theoretical explanation. The child, in contrast, is usually more
curious about who is involved—he wants a pseudo-theory, and not a full-
blown intellectual answer. Parents often confuse their children by giving
an adult answer to a childish “Why?”