Mental Systems Theory: New and Expanded Edition

By Juan Martín Figini

The purpose of this book is to offer a set of knowledge about the functioning of the mind and its effects on the particular manifestation of each human system. The understanding of the mental systems can be achieved through a model, or theory, which provides a body of concepts and laws that enable us to explain all the mental phenomena and their implications for the body system and for the gestation of different types of emotions and behaviors.
The harmonious relation between its variables and laws, and its corresponding application to the study and understanding of the real cases that it intends to cover, is what provides it with a positive value of a relatively high magnitude.
The realistic understanding offered by this feasible theory is a consequence of the intellectual congruence of the model with the phenomenic structure of the mental reality and its corresponding realities.
The reading of this book will provide power to explain the mental phenomena, the emotional phenomena, and the phenomena of behaviors that, to a great extent, define the human experience.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Feb 15, 2018
• ISBN: 9781546227120

Juan Martín Figini

Juan Martín Figini ha dedicado su carrera a la comprensión y el desarrollo del ser humano en el medio social. Publicó la primera versión de la Teoría de los Sistemas Mentales en el año 2009 y su versión en inglés, Mental Systems Theory, en 2012. Esta obra ofrece un modelo sobre el funcionamiento de la mente y su relación con el alma y con el cuerpo, desarrollando un conjunto de conceptos y leyes que explican los fenómenos mentales y su responsabilidad en la gestación de las emociones y los comportamientos, con el objetivo de mejorar la calidad de vida de los seres humanos. Asimismo, ha desarrollado la Ingeniería de los Sistemas Mentales, una disciplina que tiene la finalidad de comprender y operar en el sistema mental para reestructurar el sistema de creencias de acuerdo al estado deseado que el sistema humano anhela alcanzar. Ha diseñado e implementado diversos sistemas de entrenamiento basados en la Ingeniería de los Sistemas Mentales, incluyendo el Programa de Desarrollo Vocacional, el Entrenamiento Mental para Deportistas, el Programa de Evolución Personal, entre otros. Se ha desempeñado como consultor de Manchester Business School, The University of Manchester, Inglaterra. Ha desarrollado diversos programas educativos para el British Council entre ellos: Successful Teamwork y Words create Worlds. Es licenciado en Ciencia Política de la Universidad de San Andrés, Argentina. Realizó una tesis de licenciatura titulada Alienación en Rousseau: Crítica Social y Proyecto Pedagógico, que recibió por parte del jurado académico de la Universidad de San Andrés la máxima calificación de diez puntos. Cursó, además, la licenciatura en Relaciones Internacionales en dicha universidad. Recibió una beca completa otorgada por la Weatherhead School of Business, Case Western Reserve University, USA, donde realizó el posgrado: Appreciative Inquiry Certificate in Positive Business and Society Change. Posee los títulos de posgrado en Modelos y Herramientas del Coaching Ontológico y posgrado en Técnicas y Dinámicas de Intervención del Coaching, de la Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA). Es master en Programación Neurolingüística, aprobado por el Southern Institute of NLP, The Society of NLP, International NLP, USA. Recibió la Certificación Internacional en Coaching de la International Coaching Community (ICC), habiendo sido evaluado y aprobado por Joseph O'Connor. Además, recibió la certificación en el Fundamental Course y en el Nivel Advance de EFT −The Emotional Freedom Techniques− por The EFT Certificate of Completion Program, USA. Además, realizó los cursos: “Fenomenología de la intersubjetividad y su importancia para la comprensión de las enfermedades mentales”, Facultad de Filosofía, Universidad Católica Argentina (UCA); “Yo, sujeto e identidad. El nacimiento de estos conceptos en la Edad Moderna (Siglos XVII y XVIII)”, Facultad de Filosofía, Universidad Católica Argentina (UCA) y “El modo de ser del sujeto humano en la filosofía de Kant y Hegel”, Facultad de Filosofía, Universidad Católica Argentina (UCA).

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© 2018 Juan Martín Figini. All rights reserved.

Translated by Cecilia Hirschler Fernández.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse  02/13/2018

ISBN: 978-1-5462-2711-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5462-2713-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5462-2712-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018901419

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

INTRODUCTION

THE MENTAL SYSTEM

Basic characteristics and interactions

Types of realities and sensory stimuli

The mental sensory system

Laws of the mental sensory system

Types of sensory images

The belief system

Types of beliefs

Laws of the belief system

Relationships between sensory images and beliefs

Laws and mechanisms for the generation of thought

Mental decoding

Thoughts

Types of thoughts

EMOTIONS

Laws of the thought-emotion connection

The emotional system

Types of emotions

Emotional groups

Negative emotions

Positive emotions

BEHAVIORS

Laws of manifestation

Types of behaviors

Reasoning cycles for the execution of behavior

RESULTS

Types of results

Feedback dynamics

Open feedback

Closed feedback

THE SOUL

Soul and personality

Consciousness and free will

CONCLUSION

APPENDIX

GLOSSARY

INDEX OF FIGURES

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

There was a person who accompanied me through the entire process of bringing this work to life. Her name is Cecilia Hirschler Fernández, and she happens to be my wife. Thank God we found each other, and she did not hesitate in following me in this innovative project with positive implications. All the graphics, some examples, and part of the order were her invaluable, time-saving contributions. Whenever I finished developing a section of the theory, I asked for her analysis and reflection, since she is an extremely qualified person to do that job.

I am deeply grateful to have shared this work with her, and that her related tasks contributed to the accomplishment of this great goal.

Thank you very much for helping me to develop this work. Thank you for this great act of love and generosity.

And I always thank God and all his servants for being with me in every step I take. Sometimes I make mistakes, but I examine them and rectify my behavior. Thank you for all the lessons and challenges that I have experienced and will experience. Thank you. You help me grow. You help me mature.

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this book is to offer a set of knowledge about the functioning of the mind and its effects on the particular manifestation of each human system. The understanding of the mental systems can be achieved through a model, or theory, which provides a body of concepts and laws that enable us to explain all the mental phenomena and their implications for the body system and for the gestation of different types of emotions and behaviors.

All the notions and postulates have been rigorously developed according to two variables of evaluation: the internal and external coherence of the model.

The harmonious relation between its variables and laws, and its corresponding application to the study and understanding of the real cases that it intends to cover, is what provides it with a positive value of a relatively high magnitude.

The realistic understanding offered by this feasible theory is a consequence of the intellectual congruence of the model with the phenomenic structure of the mental reality and its corresponding realities. This is something that you, the readers, will be able to notice as you keep exploring it and verifying it with your own experience and the experience of others.

The reading of this book will provide power to explain the mental phenomena, the emotional phenomena, and the phenomena of behaviors that, to a great extent, define the human experience. Our experience.

In order to comprehend the origin of our manifestation, we must thoroughly understand the mental system and its relation with the soul and the body system.

All that you are doing right now is a consequence of thoughts about the future and thoughts that command behavior. They are the ones that have enabled this action of reading.

Our identity, the way we are, our personality, defines to a certain extent the horizon of possibilities and restrictions that we possess as human systems.

The understanding of these concepts is fundamental to start managing and changing our particular way of being in the most favorable direction to achieve our purposes.

That is possible. The mental systems theory serves that purpose. And many others that the readers will be able to discover as they advance in the study and application of this work in different areas of knowledge.

I invite you to explore it, use it, and enjoy its study.

THE MENTAL SYSTEM

Basic characteristics and interactions

A system is an entity that justifies its existence and functions as a whole through the interaction of its parts.¹

Following this definition, a human system is an entity that justifies its existence and functions as a whole through the interaction of the soul, the mental system, and the body system.²

There are two types of human systems: individual and collective.

Individual human systems are human beings.

Collective human systems are social systems (or communities). They are constituted by two or more individual human systems that interact with each other.

In this book, we will specifically talk about individual human systems, focusing on the mental system and its belief system.

The mental system, which is in permanent interaction with the soul and the body, is the key to understanding the causes and characteristics of any human system’s thoughts, emotions, and consequent behaviors.

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Figure 1: Human sys’tem. Basic structure.

The mental system is an entity that justifies its existence and functions as a whole through the interaction of the mental sensory system and the belief system.

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Figure 2: Mental system.

Biological perception is determined by the following senses: visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory, olfactory, and internal sensitive.³ Those senses compose the biological sensory system (or biological system of perception), which is part of the nervous system that, in turn, is part of the body system.

All that is captured by the biological sensory system is decoded by the cerebral system, which transmits the information to the mental system.

This input received by the mental system is captured, specifically, by its mental sensory system.

The defining components of the mental sensory system are a reflection of the senses of the biological sensory system.

The mental sensory system is an entity that justifies its existence and functions as a whole through the interaction of the auditory, visual, tactile, olfactory, gustatory, and internal sensitive subsystems. Its function is to transform the received information into sensory images (or sensory impressions) through the interaction of its subsystems.

Let us illustrate these concepts with a simple example:⁴

We notice that we are in a room, facing a blue wall, where the weather is hot. We can hear a dog barking, and we smell food. All that sensory data that we have captured is happening in our mind. How is this possible? Those external stimuli (light, sound, temperature, smell) have been received by our biological sensory system. Then, this information, processed by our cerebral system, has been transmitted to the mental sensory system. All the sensory images that we have mentioned (the color blue, the shape of the wall, the heat, the noise, the smell) constitute the output of this process.

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Ultimately, all that we experience happens in our minds.

Sensory images (or sensory impressions)⁵ are the emergent property of the mental sensory system. They are mental sensory reproductions based on the senses of the biological system of perception, and they do not have a linguistic meaning. They constitute the output of the mental sensory system which, in turn, is the input of the belief system.

The belief system is an entity that justifies its existence and functions as a whole through the interaction of beliefs.

Beliefs are ideas that have a certain energetic charge and intensity and possess a certain degree of veracity.

The energetic charge of a belief is its energetic pole, which can be either positive or negative.

The energetic intensity is the amount of mental energy that a belief contains.

Ideas are sensory images with a certain linguistic meaning, composed of one or more words that assume a logical grammatical sense.

Beliefs are linked within the belief system by the act of thinking. Through this act, mental energy is directed toward a set of beliefs that form a network.

When sensory impressions enter the belief system, a series of automatic connections (or associations) between beliefs occurs. Then, the belief system provides those sensory impressions with a certain linguistic meaning, energetic charge, and energetic intensity.

As a result of this process, a thought emerges.

A thought is an idea that possesses a certain energetic charge and intensity that affects the body system. It is the emergent property of the belief system and the mental system.

Continuing with the former example, let us take the case of the sound that has emerged from the mental sensory system as a sensory impression and then enters the belief system. There, a series of connections between beliefs occurs, decoding that sensory impression. Those beliefs could be: I hear a noise, A bark sounds like this, Dogs bark. As a consequence, the following thought emerges: A dog is barking.

So far, we have briefly named and explained the basic concepts and interactions of the mental system. In the next chapters, we will proceed to study its elements and rules of functioning in detail, following the path from the entering of a stimulus to the emission of a thought.

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Figure 4: Belief system.

Types of realities and sensory stimuli

In this segment, we will develop a typology related to the concept of reality and the different types of stimuli that the human system experiences.

Reality is the set of phenomena that happen. From the point of view of the human system, it can be divided into non-perceived reality and perceived reality.

Non-perceived reality is the set of phenomena that happen and are not sensorially captured by the human system.

Perceived reality is the set of phenomena that happen and are sensorially captured by the human system.

Internal reality is the set of phenomena that happen within the human system. Internal reality can be divided into internal mental reality and internal physical reality.

Internal mental reality is the set of