SYMPTOMS ON THE THREE META LEVELS

In the last blog we explored the three meta-levels of problems and because of those three meta-levels (Neurons #7), each level also triggers different kinds of symptoms. Knowing this enables you to identify a symptom’s level and whether it is time to reframe, refer to a coach, and/or refer to a therapist. Symptoms, as expressions of meanings, and the conceptual constructs that generate the problem, make up a lot of the noise that an expert problem-solver has to cut through. Without the ability to identify and distinguish symptom from problem and the different levels of symptoms, a person can waste a lot of time trying to get a handle on the real problem. So you are facing some symptoms, at what level do the symptoms occur?

Primary Symptoms

On the first-level are the primary symptoms. These result directly from the meaning of one’s thinking or believing. Here the symptom is also the emotion that results from the thinking. If you are thinking fearful, dangerous or overwhelming thoughts, symptomatically you will experience fear. If you are thinking that something is a threat to your self or to your values, symptomatically, you will experience anger. So also with thoughts of loss generates sadness. Thoughts of violating your values or doing something wrong will generate shame or guilt.

With first level symptoms, you can easily infer the meaning construct creating the problematic symptom. And you know it is a first level symptom when the symptoms quickly goes away when you reframe the meaning. These symptoms tell a well trained Manager (or any person) that he or she can deal with the problem by renaming, re-classifying, reframing, belief change, upgrading of an understanding, re-deciding a decision, etc. Further, at the level, things can change very quickly and is the basis for the 5-Minute conversation.

Second Level Symptoms

Now things get complicated. Here the kind of thinking that generates the symptoms are not direct and immediate thoughts, but layered thoughts— thoughts-about-thoughts. Here as a person reflexively think-and-feels a second time about a first level thought, emotion, or experience, thinking becomes layered. For example, fearing your fear generates paranoia, anger at your fear generates self-contempt, hatred of your fear may generate self-hatred. Here the multi-ordinal nature of thinking create multi-layered meanings making it much more difficult to say what you feel or address the symptoms which result.

Ask, “What do you feel?” to someone who fears his anger, and shames himself for his fear-of-his-anger, and he will struggle to clearly identify what he feels. He feels a number of things. When this layering process continues and habituates, gestalt states arise which are “more than, and different from the sum of the parts.” This is what enables we humans to create all sorts of pathological states that can’t be explained by the parts. Psychotherapists have described the resulting states as “knots” and paradoxes—obviously a much more complex problem to solve. In the same way, there will be not just one but a multiplicity of symptoms.

Symptoms at the second level are seldom solved quickly. Here a single reframe or even multiple reframes seldom create a resolution so the symptom goes away. That’s a good indication that you’re dealing with a second level symptom and it’s time to refer. Here refer to a well-trained coach or counselor who will have more advanced problem-solving skills— skills which may take a full 60-minute session or multiple sessions to resolve.

Sometimes at this level, the person’s may have found a fast and quick solution to his problem. He does this with a positive intention, seeking a quick way to eliminate the symptom or generate a sense of protection. And in the short-term it works. In the long-term, however, it generates more problems, more severe consequences, and distress. The short-term ‘solution’ of denial does this. It makes the problem go away. But not really. So also with other pseudo-solutions like blaming and cynicism. They seem to release one from shame and guilt, but not really. A solution like hate, aggression, prejudice, etc. seems to build up one’s sense of worth and value, but again, the solution is dysfunctional and even toxic.

Third Level Symptoms

While the second level problems and symptoms are mostly unconscious, they can fairly easily be made conscious and worked with. Not so with the third level. The unconscious assumptions and presuppositions that make up the conceptual constructs at this level are mostly absorbed from our cultural environment and learned behaviorally through the rules and rituals that we practice long before we can question them. We thereby embody these premises and inhabit them kinesthetically which makes them mostly outside of conscious awareness.

These assumptive understandings about life, self, knowledge, reality, etc. are the ‘life scripts’ that we pick up from family, friends, religion, school, etc. Ideas like “Life is unpredictable and chaotic.” “Trust no one.” “People are selfish and cruel.” “People do not actually change.” Often these arise due to traumas or emotional wounds and arise as a pseudo-solution for protection and survival. As a result, the symptoms that arise from this level are usually much deeper inside of one’s body as a deep kinesthetic feeling of being helpless, hopeless, suicide ideations, destructiveness, etc.

These symptoms require a well-trained psychotherapist and typically involve ten to twenty sessions. The therapist has to have psychological skills of eliciting the unconscious assumptions and dealing with them. Here because the conceptual constructs of the person requires the symptoms and maintain them, getting to them is essential for solving assumptive level problems.

Next time you ask about someone’s symptoms and then hear them—question yourself, “At what level is this symptom?” “At what level of constructing meaning would this symptom arise?” That will indicate how deeply to engage your meta probe into the person’s mind-body system.