External Analysis

EXTERNAL

The observation of reality can be influenced by the observer. This is like as if the observer were the only male in an otherwise all female group. The individual as an observer, must be capable of controlling how the self looks and acts in real circumstance, so as to affect and prejudice the event to the least degree. If the individual appears to others to be somewhat dense as opposed to say an authority figure, varying interactions will occur. Thus for this reason and for the purposes of continuing the processes of discovering and changing conditioning, the first task in terms of the External Method, is he observation and evaluation of the self.

The purpose of the External Technique is to make changes that were discovered in the process of the Internal Technique, and to uncover new unconscious predispositions in the reality of everyday living experience. Some unconscious conditioning can be drawn out by the Internal method, but much of it has become locked into the mind's and body's automatic processes of thinking and doing, such that it can only be discovered through observation in the actuality of its manifestations, as specific situations and circumstances. The individual simply may not, in an abstract sense, think of all the many possibilities of conditioned thinking and action, that only varied experience can produce. For instance the individual may not know that one is socially or racially prejudiced. One may think that one is not, and consider it a matter of pride, as an equalitarian intellectual position. But if one has no real experience in the living milieu of other cultures, then such experience may reveal hidden traits.

One of the primary techniques for the discovery of unconscious mechanisms is the method termed the Watcher. This is the technique of watching oneself, as if one were watching another person. This is to see oneself as others do and to detect and discover unconscious behavior. For instance a person may have unconscious body movements and behavior which occur only in certain social situations as when one is uncomfortable and nervous, perhaps such as employing the use of a specific phrase, such as 'In no way, I have ever done that', that may be out of context to the social circumstance.

EXTERNAL (2 OF 15) NEXT PAGE