1.3: TWO MINDS

Knowing what is good for you is one thing, acting in accord with that knowledge is quite another. To explain why people act counter to their own interests, Freud proposed a Psyche motivated by Conscious and Unconscious factors. For our purposes a model proposed more recently by Epstein1 is particularly useful. Epstein posits that we, like other animals, have an Experiential Processing System through which we learn which response under which conditions produce immediate pleasure and pain. But unlike other creatures we have access to higher cognitive faculties - a Rational Processing System - that enable us to appreciate the likely long-term consequences of our actions, so that we can maximize our gratification and minimize our suffering. This wonderful resource is only available during periods of surplus, because it requires sufficient time and energy to think things through. The attributes of the two processing systems are contrasted below:

Experiential Processing System	Rational Processing System
Pleasure-pain oriented: What feels best now	Rationally oriented: What yields the greatest net benefits
Connections determined by the principals of classical conditioning	Connections determined by the principals of logic
Has a long evolutionary history and operates in animals as well as humans	Has a brief evolutionary history, operates through language
Holistic	Analytic
Encodes reality in concrete images, metaphors and narratives	Encodes reality in abstract symbols, words and numbers
Rapid processing: Oriented toward immediate action	Slower processing: Oriented toward future action
Slow to change: Change requires repetitive or intense experience	Rapid to change: Changes with the speed of thought
Experience is state dependent	Logic is independent of local state
Experienced passively, outside of conscious awareness [one is seized by one's emotions]	Experienced actively and consciously [one is in control of one's thoughts]
Certainty is self-evident [seeing is believing]	Certainty requires justification via logic and evidence

Because the rational processing system is only available in special circumstances, it cannot be counted upon to guide behavior during a crisis. In my office clients generally have access to good cognitive resources; he or she has taken an hour out of their day to focus their full attention on solving this problem. Knowing that I will point out thinking errors, most competent individuals are able to adhere to the rules of inductive and deductive reasoning. But at most other times, the experiential processing system is the default, and guides real time performance.

Ms. Lickfire has become dependent on cocaine. She is a competent woman, a well-paid attorney, body builder, and mom. In my office she develops an excellent plan – one that would certainly produce good outcomes for her and her daughters if she adhered to it. She has good cognitive skills so developing the plan is the easy part for her. The real challenge is for her to get herself to adhere to her plan when she encounters a crisis and her cognitive resources are otherwise occupied.

That this is a difficult challenge is demonstrated by the fact that L has already gone through several inpatient and intensive outpatient treatment programs, and has attended self-help group meetings on and off for years, yet she continues to relapse.

I interact with L’s rational processing system, the one to whom it makes no sense to risk everything dear to her for the trivial pleasure of a cocaine high. But there are other versions of L, and I only have access to the one who appears in my office. The L that I see has put aside all the other demands of her daily life and dedicates her best cognitive resources to the problem of acting counter to what she says are her true intentions. But during the critical moments of a high-risk situation, my office and her excellent cognitive abilities are far away.

Real-time performance is not based on deliberate rational processing – there is no time for that. The best predictor of what L will do when faced with a particular high-risk situation is what she did the last time she encountered such a situation. To behave differently she will have to override this default reaction and intentionally guide her behavior. Initially this requires will, but with practice the intentional reactions become habitual and hence easier to perform.

The process of sculpting her habit patterns is not all that different from the way L sculpts her physique. First, she used her rational processing system to figure out a possible solution to her challenge. Then she strengthens the intended coping tactics through the practice performing as intended. With sufficient practice the intended reaction becomes habitual – that is, automatic, easy requiring little cognitive resources. For both body sculpting and habit sculpting the intended reality gradually emerges with exercise.