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Have a Go Spaghettio! The Map and The Territory

If the 'map' (our belief constructions) isn’t the 'territory' (reality) and people believe it is, then there’s a lot of unwarranted emotional and behavioural upset endured by many who believe what they think is reality.

This kind of thinking sees life’s twists and turns as major inconveniences that shouldn’t happen. So, if, for example someone doesn’t say thanks when you open the door for them, and you feel the indignation rise within, and you say ‘you’re welcome’ after them, who or what is causing your angst?

The answer is that you are! But how? Rational Emotive behaviour Therapy, (REBT), the Stoics, General Semantics and the Buddha say that how we interpret what’s happening has a connection to our emotional and behavioural response. How we interpret what’s happening is related to philosophical belief rules we’ve constructed over time, of which we may not be aware.

Consider the scenario above, how might the aggrieved person be thinking at the time, about the incident. Possibly they surmise, ‘I did them a good turn and they didn’t acknowledge me. I always say thanks when people show me courtesy. That really pushes my buttons!’ The interpretation may be that because they didn’t say thanks, they were ‘being’ rude and it makes you angry! So, the other person ‘is’ rude and ‘made’ you angry.

What are the belief rules that underly this type of assessment. REBT would say that irrational beliefs have been established, constructed over time that determine this kind of appraisal of the situation as follows.

-          People absolutely should/must treat me as I wish to be treated.

-          People who behave badly are bad and deserve my derision and contempt.

-          I can’t handle people not attending to my wants and needs as I demand them to

-          It isn’t fair that I be inconvenienced this way.

Creator of REBT, Albert Ellis says that the extent or severity of the persons upset in this instance is driven by a ‘map’ replete with thinking inaccuracies that don’t approximate the ‘territory’ or how the real-world works. The map is considered to ‘be’ the ‘territory’ and the map’s not wrong, the territory is! In this case, what happened, shouldn’t have and it has ‘made’ the person angry.

Donald Hoffman, cognitive scientist accords with Alfered Korzybski, creator of General Semantics theory, saying that:

“Human perception is not a window onto objective reality, but a ‘user interface’ that presents the brain’s best, fitness-driven guess of the world.”

The Have a go Spaghettio! approach to Success Helper (SH) thinking development, introduces the above ideas to early childhood constructivists, who are formulating the ‘maps’ that best represents the ‘territories’ they inhabit. SH thinking constitutes the virtual ‘map’ that best represents the ‘territory’ and is embodied in the six SH capabilities illustrated in the Have a Go Spaghettio! chart. It teaches young constructivists that behaviour and emotions are connected to habits of thinking, which can be Success Helper or Success Stopper, Brain Friend, or Brain Bully.

Give it a try banana pie!

 

  

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