A Pragmatic Guide To Communication & Change.pdf - NLP Info Centre

and distortion covered in Chapter I.
Meta Model Violations
Any time you are reading or listening to a person speak and yuo find yourself having to
"go inside" to understand what is Ix ing said, it is a pretty good indication that you have
experienced what is called a "Met. Model violation." The fact that you are confused and
need to internally
for, functions by transforming both the instructions and the data into numbers (symbols).
These arbitrarily assigned symbols make possible the compilation or manipulation of
information. Digital computers are often equated with logical functions and can
demonstrate such relationships as "if then" and the simple negation "not."
The analog computer operates on a program through which it runs information (input) in
order to obtain results. This process orientation enables it to work with and measure
quantities on an continuum such as intensity, weight, or turns of a wheel. From a
bathroom scale or slide rule to the sophisticated guidance system of a rocket, the key to
the analog computer is its manipulations of the analogs of data. 'these analogs are the
similarities between data and its representations (like the number of turns of the
numbered wheel on the bathroom scale), and these similarities are directly related to the
data.
In the "human computer," both systems function conjointly. The differences, however, are
important. The key to digital expression (language) is the arbitrary assignment of wordsymbols
to things or processes. There is no necessary connection between the name and
the thing named. On the contrary, analog, by definition, means that something is similar
to something else. Therefore, we can expect that analogic "language" or communication
will more closely relate to what it is about.
For example, if we hear the word "eat" in an unfamiliar language, we are not likely to
understand it. It is merely an arbitrarily assigned (digital) symbol for a common behavior.
If, however, the person pantomimes the behavior (eating), that is, uses analogic
communication, the meaning is much more likely
to be understood.
But where analogic communication is more universal (and more "primitive"'), it is
also limited in some very important ways. Since analogic communication can only
portray a thing or an action, it cannot portray a thought or idea and is therefore
unable to portray negation. Only the more abstract and versatile digital representation
system can express negation. The digital system can also convey time and number
manipulations which analog systems cannot.
Another limitation is that of ambiguity. A smile (analog) can come from an
experience of pleasure or an experience of pain ("Grin and bear it"). A shrug of the
shoulders can mean "I give up," "I don't care," ,' , I don't know.",lust as with the
analogic computer, there is always some error in translation, and in human analog
systems there are no qualifiers to indicate which message is implied. 2
By understanding the value of the mechanisms involved in the process of affixing labels
to our experiences, we can become more alert to some of the effects these Labels have..
our perception. It is not unusual to judge behavior by its appearance, attaching a name or
label to it and more or less "reifying"it. This tends to halt or at least limit future
observations of the behavior's effects. Dr. Palazzoli talks about this problem in the book