chapters

Choosing the Fiction You Live By

Most people walk through the world in a trance of disempowerment.
Our work is to transform that into a trance of empowerment

 —  Milton Erickson

I used to put my baby teeth under the pillow in the hopes that the tooth fairy would replace them with cash. And sure enough, in the morning the tooth would be gone and a coin a left in its place. Now, I smile when I look back on how gullible I was as a child.

When listening to a client's description of the sequence of events that led to a bad outcomes, I interpret the episode differently than she did. While I believe that my way of interpreting these events would result in a better outcome for the client, I cannot argue that my perspective is the right one. None of us humans have access to immaculate perception. My convictions are no less fictional than my client's.

Fictions are made up by humans, which distinguishes them from the events they represent. The way we represent the world in our mind is a map not the territory [see The Soul Illusion]. Fictions are not necessarily false—literature is full of great truths told through fictional narratives. The "tooth fairy" conviction did no harm and my current conviction that it was really my mother who traded the tooth for a coin does no particular good. So, there is no benefit of debunking this myth. However, regarding a handicapping premise as true when it is not can produce a recurring pattern of bad outcomes. If you detect such a pattern in your history, replace the premise responsible for it.

Reification refers to regarding the map as though it was the territory. Stage hypnotism takes reification to the extreme by getting subjects to act as if the map described by the hypnotist's suggestions is the reality. The audience is not asked to reify the suggestions; so, from their perspective, the subjects' behavior is comical.

Consider the parallels between your self-sabotaging reactions and the weird reactions of hypnotic subjects on stage. You react to the triggering event as if your interpretations of it is valid and complete. [From the first-person perspective, your map is experienced as if it was the territory, which makes this creative fiction so devilishly convincing].

Curb Your Dogma

If you forget that your understanding of the things that happen is just one of several possible interpretations, you're screwed. You will not be able to learn the lessons that the consequences of your actions are trying to teach you if you think you already know the truth.

 

Nietzsche's Perspectivism

Barry, the suicide bomber, the Buddhist monk, the valley girl, you, and I accept different premises about the way things are and consequently we each experience different subjective realities. If we were to follow Nietzsche's recommendation, we'd conclude that no perspective is valid and complete— though some are more destructive than others.

Barry's judgment of himself as socially undesirable impairs his social performance and so becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The fact that his expectations are confirmed (as was my tooth fairy belief) does not mean it is true. One way to describe my role as his therapist is to help him to De-Reify his pathogenic fictions and Reify more helpful premises.

To follow Nietzsche's logic: Your current perspective is just one of the many possible ways to look at things. He advises that since you cannot use validity as the criterion to select among the contenders, it would be more advantageous to select your perspective on the basis of utility.

How I Chose My Photo

I recently had to choose a photo of myself for my web site. Naturally, I selected the most flattering one. Then I had the thought: "You can't use that one, it makes you look more handsome than you really are," then I thought: "Actually, it's the other pictures that make you less handsome than you really are." Needless to say, this internal dialogue reflects my self-focused ruminations rather than facts about the objective world. I did not alter any of the photos, so no one is more valid than another. Each shows how I look from a particular angle, with certain lighting, at a particular moment in time. There is no "most valid" photo of me, so I cannot use validity as the basis of selection. Instead, I'd be wise to choose the photo most likely to do the job I want it to do: To evoke a favorable reaction from the viewer.

Just as the subject of a photo looks different from different camera angles, the way you experience the events that happen depends upon the perspective from which you perceive them. Just as you might rate some of those photos as more attractive than others, you might find that some perspectives elicit performance-enhancing reactions while others evoke self-sabotaging reactions. It makes no sense to argue that some camera angles are more valid than others; a competent photographer positions the camera to produce the outcome he seeks. For this reason, the prudent criterion for selecting among plausible interpretive lenses is your judgment of the premise's utility . Holding out for the right or correct interpretation is a fool's errand.

 

Certainty Means Nothing > >

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