About Me
I have a BA in Psychology, a MS in Interdisciplinary Counseling, and a PhD in Educational and Counseling Psychology. I have been a certified or licensed counselor for over 30 years from individual to group counseling, Mental Health Counselor, Family and Marriage Therapist, Domestic Violence, sexual problems, etc.
You could say I am a reductionist philosopher in psychology. I use what I call a 4 x 4 model of human behavior. Basically I look at the four stages of the brain in processing what to do. (1) We perceive the situation, in the back and sides of the brain, (2) we then fear it or want it, in the middle emotional brain, (3) we plan what to do, in the frontal lobes, and (4) we follow through, the top of the brain. Then we are back to (1) to repeat the cycle, each time the four steps influence each other. Our perception is influenced by our emotions, our thinking tells us to look or listen for things, our skills and opportunities tell us our limitations and what to again look for, etc. The strength and limitations of each stage our personality makes us unique. I gave each stage an animal or two to represent it.
(1)
Ant & Bee
Seeing, hearing, etc.
Senses
Perception
Body
Stimulus
Biology/Genetics
Body
Body
(2)
Macho & Cuddles
Fear & Love
Approach or Avoid
Emotions
Mind
Inner Response
Past or Family
ID
Moody/Anx
(3)
Geru
Beliefs
Planning
Thinking
Soul
Processing
Beliefs
Ego
IQ, Knowledge
(4)
Turtle & Rabbit
Patience and Energy
Habits and Addictions
Acting
Reality
Response
Environment
Super Ego (What's Expected)
Society
As a counselor I look at these to help you see your options and values. The second part of the 4 x 4 is me, myself, and I. The four stages I call 'ME.' The above is what I call the Upper Nature. 'ME' also has a lower nature. It is the same four stages and cycle but are not always good. If they are necessary for survival, the survival mode, its OK, but if they are just games and trickery for fun or for no good reasons they are counter productive. If a person is persistent in these traits we call them personality disordered. Its all in the wrong order. The widgets, animals (1) thru (8), compete instead of cooperate. I give the stages of the Lower Nature animals also.
(5)
Spiedie
Deception
Denial
Web of Lies
Con Man
(6)
Raccoon
Greed
Selfish
Self Centered
Opportunist
(7)
Crow
Blaming
Irrational
Shallow
Crazy
(8)
Coyotee
Aggression
Stealing
Bulling
Crook
The second part or 4 in the 4 x 4 model is me, myself, & I along with opportunity and possibilities, social and our roles. The (1) through (8) I call 'ME.' The human body with its instincts and reflex needs and desires I call 'MYSELF.' Consciousness and the will to make choices I call 'I.' 'ME,' 'MYSELF,' and 'I' are in constant conflict to take advantage or the ENVIRONMENTS opportunities or try and change the environment or situation for more possibilities. All four are coordinated or in conflict. The environment can be other people and their personalities or personality disorders. Oh, the games people do play.
OK, lets look at me and my personality or disorders. Then with help in the web sites you can graph yours or others or a group's personality. Yes groups have personalities depending who is in them and their limitations and possibilities, a polite church group versus a rowdy prison group. You can skim through the sites to better understand your personality and perhaps graph it our or you can email me and request help.
Graphing My Personality
This is a key to the widgets and concepts mentioned above.
Below I go through three different times of my life from a small child to an older person.
In graphing your personality near accurately everything is really relevant to what you see as normal in others. That's OK as others will make adjustments in your finished project according to their concepts of normal or average and of their judgement of you. Thats OK, as with any measuring method our biases alter our perceptions. That's OK, as it is very human to do that and life is really not an absolute unchanging reality but a work in progress. The comparative nature of us humans helps us build models that change as our wisdom changes. So don't worry about it.
This is a fun and informative way to think about self and others. It will help you see and understand reality better so you can make better choices and work on being a better you, as you define better. Also, no one can pin you down and label you for life. You and your personality usually changes and improves as you work on it. Now you will be able to better graph those changes and where you want changes to occur, in perception, emotions, thinking, or actions.
I was born normal. All my Upper Nature Widgets and Lower Nature were about equal size. I was strong willed but not very rebellious. My childhood was fairly normal. That is until I turned six years old and was in first grade.
I became handicapped and my personality changed from normal to special needs. If you want to read about my struggle with handicaps, if for no other reason then others have the same struggle, you can do that by reading or scanning my blog The Making of a Counselor. Or just click on the BLOG in the navigation bar.
At six years old I had measles followed by encephalitis. I was sick with high fevers above 105 for over a month. It wiped out my short term memory leaving me functionally half deaf and half blind. To represent that I shrunk Ant and Bee, the perception widgets. The handicapped gave me a lot of frustration and anxiety. So I enlarged Macho, the fear widget. I also had to do more processing of information to understand the world. So Geru, the bird with the overview, had to enlarge. I became a child who had to do a lot of thinking for simple tasks. I was fortunate to have a loving mother, so my Lower Nature did not enlarge.
Today, after 30 plus years of Counseling, even founding and running my own Mental Health Agency, and having learned how to improve my perceptions, this is my personality graphed now. Bee, patterns, has grown very well. Ant, details is bigger but still smaller then it should be, Ant depends more on details picked up by short term memories . Geru's understanding of Psychology, has grown a lot. If I were to use Physics or say Medicine for the understanding Geru would be much smaller, and if it was set for Car Repair Geru would really be small.
I put Psych Books in Geru's hands to represent I think a lot on Psych and a bike an pack on Rabbit, my hobbies. When you graph your personalities, feel free to add any pictures of academics, sports, art, music, hobbies etc. Or add backgrounds. Be creative and have fun. Landing Pages will explain how to create and share your creations on a Facebook page made for it.
I enlarged 'I' or Mr.Do and Rabbit because I can do a lot more now. Fear is very small and my heart for others grew. I also shrunk Dragon and his Lower Nature as I tend to be a very forgiving and tolerant person.
Now Go Have Fun Exploring Personality and Mental Health