Interpretations and assumptions

Once ever so often, the concept of interpretations comes to my head....

The confusions of interpretations...

So, today, I somehow got myself into this cat fight (Thank God that I am imperfect and perfectly capable of getting into cat fights 8-O lol).

For me, all that I do and I can not refrain myself from doing these past few months through my verbal diarrhea is speaking of my observations while, at times, generating further interpretation by referencing to my past experiences through accessing information in my long term memories. Yet, the other cat see it different.

I will use the experiences I went through on my way home to clarify again what it takes for us to come up with interpretations based on my understanding of how the mind is supposed to work....

Scenario:

My neurotransmitters must got all excited during some useless cat fight although there must be a bigger reason for the cat fight to take place and since Rome was not built in one day. So as I walked down the street towards the downtown direction, I saw a huge number of people walking uptown towards me. They all have just heard about cat fight and they are debating on the side to take. They were looking or wanted to look at me while not dare to look directly towards my direction. I looked down to the street to avoid facing them because I am not perfect and I get into conflicts. Then, I realized that what I was avoiding was my delusions which just have their level of severity going sky-rocketed.

Attention: I attended to things in the environment. This is what precedes the observations I make consequently.

Perceiving: The process of perceiving results in observations that could be both internal and external.

1. So as I walked down the street towards the downtown direction, I saw a huge number of people walking uptown towards me.
2. People look.
3. I looked down.
4. my delusions which just have their level of severity going sky-rocketed. (This is a psychosis-related observation which might not be too useful to normal people)

Interpretation: The interpretations could be both delusional and non-delusional. Regardless, they are the artifacts of what is already in place in my head or in me. In addition, the generation of interpretations involves the recent observations and interpretations as well as the access to information in long term memories.

1. They all have just heard about the cat fight and they are debating on the side to take. (The classic way of interpreting things delusionally. Without any basis, the assumption was made in my head that, first, people knew who I am and, second, care about what I do. It is this biased assumption that led me to make the interpretation. This belief, of course, provides a perfect example for ego-centrism.)
2. They were looking or wanted to look at me while not dare to look directly towards my direction. (It is but an interpretation driven by my self-centered delusional propensity. Again, the embedded assumptions are that people know me and know what I do while nobody gives a rat's ass about me.)
3. I looked down to the street to avoid facing them because I am not perfect and I get into conflicts. (Over here, I was both reacting and making inferences about the interpretations I have come up with, which are absolutely in lack of basis.)
4. I realized that what I was avoiding was my delusions which just have their level of severity going sky-rocketed. (In addition to what I have mentioned above. Here goes the interpretations following the tradition of psychoanalysis... 8-O lol)

An interesting observation I made when coming up with the above meaningless analysis is that the word assumption has appeared in many locations. To the extent that it is as if the assumptions we hold could emerge absolutely out of any context and independent of any supporting evidence.

At the same time, the assumptions I hold did not arrive in a vacuum. It is the cumulative artifacts of the present context involving both the perceptions and the interpretation as well as the information stored in our long term memories. Guess this is why, in statistics, my professors could not stop repeating or emphasizing the importance of "check your assumptions."

So?

I guess the take home lesson for me is that....

My interpretations are mine. The reason why it is mine is because the interpretations are generated based on the values, beliefs and worldviews that have been stored in my long-term memories in the form of schema, script, mental models, etc. In addition, what precedes the derivision of values, beliefs and worldviews are the experiences or the interactions I have with the external environment.

It is the idiosyncratic nature of the information that have been derived by the peculiar me that makes my interpretations about whatever I encounter.

This is the same reason why other people's interpretations are theirs and theirs only.

In places where the two do not match. Figure out the assumptions and check the assumptions.

Limitations: Of course, I can't really generalized how a delusional think to that of them normal.