Meta (from the Greek preposition and prefix meta- (μετά-) meaning "after", or "beyond") is a prefix used in English to indicate a concept which is an abstraction from another concept, used to complete or add to the latter.
(of a creative work) referring to itself or to the conventions of its genre; self-referential.
"the enterprise is inherently ‘meta’, since it doesn't review movies, for example, it reviews the reviewers who review movies"
Model/Scientific modelling is a scientific activity, the aim of which is to make a particular part or feature of the world easier to understand, define, quantify, visualize, or simulate by referencing it to existing and usually commonly accepted knowledge.
"The basic principle behind the Meta Model
is Korzybski's notion that 'the map is not the territory.' That is, the models
we make of the world around us with our brains and our language are not the
world itself but representations of it." - Dilts and DeLozier,
Encyclopedia of Systemic Neuro-Linguistic Programming and NLP New Coding, 2000.
It is a representation of a representation of
something. E.G. language is a representation of the world of experience;
transformational grammar is a representation of language and, therefore, a
meta-model.
A set of specific questions used to question a
persons Surface Structure (sentences derived from Deep Structure) to uncover
their Deep Structure (what a person actually means/is trying to communicate);
"Surface Structure" is akin to "surface meaning/face
value", and "Deep Structure" to what one really means. Hence,
the goal of meta-modeling is to "get to the bottom of things" (a
meta-model response to that statement would be "which things?" and/or
"get to the bottom how?" etc.)
The goal is to understand one's perceived
problems and to expand/enrich their model of the world, and therefore to create
more choice in their behavior.
A Surface Structure is a representation of - and
derived from - a persons Deep Structure; it is their model of their world.
A Deep Structure is a full linguistic
representation of a persons model of their world/their experience.
A process which involves the three processes of
Generalization, Distortion, and Deletion.
The Meta Model uses specific language delivered
however the therapist wishes (i.e. any tonality, inflection etc.), whereas the
Milton Model uses specific tonality, inflection, pitch etc. and has vague
language.
The (3) Three Universals of Human Modeling
1. GENERALIZATION
1) Lack of Referential Indices: Words or phrases which
delete who is doing the acting; using a general subject that doesn't refer to a
specific person; such as: "The people, government, geography class, lower
class, capitalists, bankers, conservatives, Americans, Catholics, Jews,
managers, workers, men, women, a person, someone, people, they, one, we, you
(universal)." etc.
"Who/what,
specifically?"
"I don't like people/people don't like
me." - "Which people?" ~ No
Referential Index
"I like dogs that are friendly." -
"Which dogs?" ~
No Referential Index
"Things bother me." - "Which
things?" ~
No Referential Index
"One" (pronoun): "One must always
speak properly." - "Who, specifically?/Who is One?"
1b) Universal Quantifiers: "Any, all, each,
every, never, nowhere, no one, nobody, nothing, none, absolutely," etc. -
Negative (UQ) elements combination.
"Nobody likes me." - "NOBODY EVER
likes you, AT ALL." (generalization emphasized using tonality
exaggeration) - also Mind Reading. (Ask for Referential Index... "Who,
specifically?")
"It's impossible to trust anyone." -
"It's always impossible for anyone to trust anyone?" or, "Have
you ever trusted anyone?" or "Can you imagine any circumstance in
which you could trust someone?"... if not: Give an example of where they would have
trusted someone, e.g. at the doctors/dentists, police, etc.
Ask to contradict the generalization, then ask
what the difference is (Why in that case, but not this one, basically.)
Or what prevents them from stopping imagining the
circumstance.
"Do you trust me right now in this
situation?"
A single exception to the generalization starts
the client on the process of assigning referential indices and insures the
detail and richness in the client's model necessary to have a variety of
options for coping.
Explore the difference (Between the original
statement and when it's not the case): "What is the difference between
the people you can trust and the people you can't?"
"What stops you from trusting someone?"
"What would happen if you did trust someone?" "What would allow
you to trust them?"
1c) Unspecified Verbs and Nouns: Non-descriptive
actions/doing words - "What/How, specifically?"
"My father scares me." - "How does
your father scare you?"
"My mother hurt me." - Could be physically,
verbally etc.
"That's not important." -
"Important to whom? In what way?"
"He really frustrates me." - "What
exactly does he do that frustrates you? How specifically does he frustrate you?
When?"
"She hurt me deeply." - "How did
she hurt you? In what way?"
"Her outbursts bother me." - "What
kind of outbursts? Outbursts like what?"
"I cannot communicate to my brother." -
"Communicate how?"
"Get a life!" - "And 'a life'
would be what, exactly?" or "How, exactly, should I 'get' a 'life'?"
"It won't be about flowers." - "What is IT?" - "What won't be about flowers?"
"I don't know what IT is, but he's got it!"
Every verb is unspecified to some degree.
1d) Symmetrical Predicates: Predicates, which, if
accurate, necessarily imply that their converse is also accurate.
If "My husband always argues with
me" is accurate, then necessarily the Surface Structure "I always
argue with my husband" is also accurate.
If you are arguing with me, then necessarily, I
am arguing with you. "It takes two to tango."
"What are you but my reflection? Who am I to
judge or strike you down?"
1e) Non-symmetrical Predicates: Projection.
If the Surface Structure "My husband
never smiles at me" is accurate, then "I never smile at my
husband" may or may not be true.
2) Complex Equivalence:
"My husband never appreciates me... my
husband never smiles at me." - "Does your husband's not smiling at
you always mean that he doesn't appreciate you?"
The client will either verify the generalization,
or deny it (and the therapist may ask how does the client, in fact, know that
her husband doesn't appreciate her.)
With referential index shift: "Does your
not smiling at your husband always mean that you don't appreciate him?"
- (The client will usually deny this.)
"My husband never appreciates me... my husband
never smiles at me."
"Does your husband's not smiling at you
always mean that he doesn't appreciate you?"
"Yes, that's right!"
"Does your not smiling at your husband
always mean that you don't appreciate him?"
"No, that's not the same thing."
"What's the difference?"
"I'm overweight. How unattractive I feel." - "You
can't feel attractive if your weight isn't ideal?"
"You're not eating your vegetables. What's the matter? You don't like my cooking?" - "If I
liked your cooking, would I have to eat my vegetables?"
"He has a Ph.D. That means he must be really smart." -
"Does anyone who isn't really smart have a Ph.D.?"
3) The Lost Performative/Modal Operators of
Judgement:
Deity Mode. In Lost Performatives we have a statement but no speaker. And when
we have a voice echoing in the chambers of our mind, but no embodied source, it
seems like the voice of God, a Demon, an Alien entity, or another Personality.
Lost Performatives typically function as principles, paradigms, absolute
truths, mandates from heaven, and rules of life made up by these ghost mappers.
"Good, bad, crazy, sick, correct, right,
wrong, true, false, only (as in: there is only one way)..."
"Boys shouldn't cry," "It's too
dangerous to take risks investing."
"Business is business; sometimes you have to
do what you have to do."
"That's life."
"In whose opinion?", "According to
whom?", "Who says that?"
Even more tricky about this is that it gets us
all at the very place where we are most informed and intelligent. The more we
know, the more we have studied, the more research we have under our belt -- the
more we have made up our mind.This sets the subject; it closes the
subject. It ends all questioning, thinking, exploring.
"It's unlucky to be supersitious."
"It's bad to be inconsistent."
"You should get a haircut." -
"What are your criteria for deciding that?"
2. DISTORTION
1) Nominalization: Process --> Event (turning a process into an
event/something that is done/finished, happened in the past.) Verbs into nouns.
"Thingified."
With Nominalizations, the life has been sucked
out of the verb, and hence are good words to use when we want to hypnotize.
Nominalizations are words that are suspended in
space, with a life of their own (yet lifeless at the same time) and with no way
to control them. False nouns; nouns that aren't nouns (can you put it into a
wheelbarrow? Nouns are people, places, and things. You can not put processes
into a wheelbarrow. See if you can put "an ongoing" in front
of the word, e.g. an "ongoing chair"... chair is a noun and
can be put into a wheelbarrow, so is well-formed. "My depression"...
depression cannot be put into a wheelbarrow because it is a concept, it doesn't
exist as a noun [but the statement has turned it into one; a nominalization.
Hence to denominalize is to say "my ongoing depression" or
"my depressing", that is, to do the act/process of depressing;
something that is being done, a process.])
See if you can imagine placing each of the
non-process or non-verb words into a wheelbarrow.
"I regret my decision to return home." (decision = noun) --->
(deciding = verb) ---> "I regret that I'm deciding to return
home."
"My divorce is painful." (divorce ---> divorcing,
"My wife and I divorcing is painful.")
"Our terror is blocking us." (terror ---> terrified, "Our
being terrified is blocking us.")
"I resent your question." (question --->
questioning/asking, "I resent what you are asking/the way you are
asking me.")
"Your projection causes me injury." (projection, injury --->
projecting, injuring, "The way that you are/What you are projecting
injures me/is injuring me.")
"My confusion has a tendency to give me no
relief."
(confusion, tendency, relief ---> being confused, tends, relieving, "My
being confused tends to stop me from feeling releived.")
"His intuitions are remarkable." (intuitions --->
intuites, "The way he intuites things/What he intuites is remarkable.")
"I want more excitement in my life."
"What excites you?"
Goal = Denominalize - "From love to
loving, and from relationship to relating." - Osho
Listen to the nominalization and denominalize it,
that is, turn it into its verb/process equivalent.
More example words: Freedom, Peace, Liberty, Rights, Individuality,
Headache, Ego, Pleasure, Pain, Happiness, Sadness, Thought, Sex, Love, Hate,
Mind, The Unconscious/Conscious, Thought, Language, Sickness, Eczema, Cancer,
Alzheimers, Parkinsons, Diabetes,
2) Presuppositions: Implications.
"We ate food at the park" - Implies/presupposes that
we went to the park.
Any portion of the Surface Structure which occurs
after the main verbs realize, be aware, ignore, etc., is a presupposition or
necessary assumption of that SS.
"Keep on keeping on" - Presupposes that one is
"keeping on".
"Keep calm and carry on" - Presupposes that one is
calm. "Carry on" - Unspecified Verb - "Carry on,
how?" and "Carry on with what?"
3) Cause and Effect: Presents a vague picture to the therapist. The
client feels that they literally have no choice, that their emotions are
determined by forces outside of themselves. The client may come to feel guilty
or, at least, responsible for "causing" some emotional response in
another.
Frequent words:
"makes, because (be-cause), if...then, as...then, then, since, so,
whenever this... that."
"My wife makes me feel angry.",
"Your laughing distracts me."
"How, specifically?"
"She couldn't succeed because, when she was
a child, her parents were abusive."
"Some children with abusive parents succeed
very well."
"Since public restrooms are not private, I
can't 'go' in them."
"So, since water is a public utility, you
can't 'go' in a toilet?"
4) Mind Reading: The belief that one can know another's thoughts
& feelings without direct communication. Presents a vague picture to the
therapist. The client has little choice as they have already decided what the
other people involved think and feel. They respond on their level of
assumptions about what these others think & feel. Fails to express their
thoughts and feelings, resulting in assumptions that others are able to know
these thoughts and feelings.
In mind-reading, we have a combination of deletions,
presuppositions, and referential index shifts. These often indicate feel-see,
feel-hear synesthesia patterns or cross-sensory patterns. That is, we feel
lonely, guilty, scared, paranoid, depressed, etc. and feel some intense
emotion, and so we project our feelings onto others. We then state our feelings
as if they belong to the other.
People who frequently mind-read tend not to
express their own thoughts and feelings, but may expect others to 'just know'
what they think and feel. In interpersonal relationships this creates a no-win,
double-bind situation which undermines friendship and true intimacy (e.g.
sharing, disclosing, etc.)
We often mistake intimate calibration with
mind-reading.
When people offer us inaccurate mind-reading
statements we typically feel them to be insulting, intrusive, foreign, and
controlling. People who receive such statements will typically feel
misunderstood, invisible, controlled, invaded, etc.
"I'm sure she liked your present.",
"I know how you feel.", "I know what you're thinking.",
"You think I'm an idiot.", "Nobody likes me.", "You
know what I'm trying to say.", "I know what makes him happy.",
"She know's what's best for you.", "You're mad at me."
"I can tell."
"How, specifically?"
"You need to get a life." - "Are
you sure you know what I need?"
3. DELETION
Reduction/Omission. Missing pieces of
information. Selective exclusion and inclusion of certain dimensions of our
experience.
"I'm scared" - "Of what?"
("Of people. Which people? My father.)
"I feel happy." - "Happy about
what/whom?"
"This exercise is boring." -
"Boring to whom?"
Class 1: Real Compared to What?
(Comparatives: More/less: er, est [smarter -
"than whom?"],
and, Superlatives: Most/least intelligent -
"with respect to what?"]
more/less & most/least [more/less intelligent
- "than whom?", "smartest - "compared to who?"
Class 2: Clearly and Obviously (ly adverbs - deletion
of verbs/process words)
"Obviously/clearly my parents dislike
me." - "To whom is it obvious/clear?"
Class 3: Modal Operators (of necessity): "have
to," "got to," "necessary," "must",
"mustn't,""need," "should,"
They immediately suggest to us the question,
"Or what?", "Says who?"
"What would happen otherwise?"
Do you 'have to' go to work? (necessity mode)
Do you 'get to' go to work? (desire mode)
Or do you have the 'choice' of going to work?
(choice mode)
Do you 'need' to exercise (necessity mode) or
'can' you(ability mode)? 'Can' you stand criticism and use it productively
(ability mode), or is it that you 'can't' stand criticism (inability mode?)
As modal operators, these terms indicate our
'mode' of response. Some operational modes, our modus operandi, create
limitations, prohibitions, pressures, and impoverishments for us. People who
live in necessity mode, impossibility mode, and inability mode
tend to experience lots of pressure, stress, constraints, negativity, etc.
Conversely, people who live in the possibility
modes, desire modes, and ability modes, typically live more positively. They
look for possibility, take action, and follow their dreams.
Class 3b: Modal Operators of im/possibility:
"It's not possible","It's impossible", "can't",
"unable", "possible," "can," "may,"
"may not," "get to,"
"What stops/blocks/prevents you?",
"What makes it impossible?" "What if you could?" "How
do you know?"
Class 3c: Modal Operators of Choice: "Desire," "Want," "
Choose/Choice,"
Summary
The Meta Model is a set of questions to be used when talking to a person who has a problem they're expressing verbally and is seeking help. The language the client uses consists of their model of their world (the Surface Structure, which is made up of Generalizations, Distortions and/or Deletions), and the goal of the therapist is to use these questions to find out exactly what the client means (to get to their Deep Structure), in order for change to be made. To generate any kind solution to any kind of problem, it is necessary to gauge exactly what the problem is, or the client wants to change. The Meta Model is always vital for this.
The Meta Model is a bullshit detector.
The Meta Model is a bullshit detector.
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