Introduction:

Simplicity because everyone knows the meaning of feeling, doing, and thinking. Power because we’re prisoners of the values behind them. Power because they allow us a test of how we organize and exercise values for better or worse. Power because we now have a science of values and can measure them…a new science, a second science that never existed before. Power because we all stand to benefit from the cultivation of an expanded awareness of what’s behind our Three Little Words.

“Three Little Words” happens to be the title of a popular song of the 1930s, and then a movie. With minimal paraphrasing, I give you a few lyrics by Ruby and Kalmar to help us remember and make use of “our Three Little Words:”

Oh I need to remember that wonderful phrase

To hear those three little words

“Feeler, Doer, and Thinker”

For the rest of my days

And what I feel in my heart

They tell me sincerely

What no other words can tell me so clearly

Three little words

Eight little letters

Which simply mean “Feeler, Doer, and Thinker”

And what I feel in my heart

They say sincerely

What no other words can tell me so clearly

Source: Google free image

Our version refers to the Feeler, Doer, and Thinker in all of us. Our scientific and clinical interest in them derives from the convergence of psychological and philosophical thought following the publication of philosopher Robert S. Hartman’s Structure of Value, and Freedom to Live; followed by my New Science of Axiological Psychology summarizing research supporting Hartman’s approach to values, its clinical relevance, and the descriptive, explanatory, and predictive powers of these dimensions of value-vision behind beliefs and thought styles resulting in emotions and behavior. Hartman called them the Intrinsic, Extrinsic, and Systemtic dimensions of value. I will more intuitively refer to them as the Feeler, Doer, and Thinker dimensions respectively. They strongly influence all behavior and the construction of identity, personhood, self, and self-esteem. This is the story of Feeler, Doer, and Thinker ways of sensing and behaving, and how each of us organizes and exercises them in different ways for better or worse.

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Each dimension has its moment in the sun responding to different situations with different degrees of sensitivity, influence, balance and plasticity. The goal is always adaptation, survival, and flourishing in the moment, and with some sense of consequentiality. Biosocial and psychosocial evolution produced these centers of valuation to protect us from “choking” on the growth of values. They are centers of cognitive processing dedicated to the three dominant forms of seeing-with-values resulting in beliefs and thought-styles behind “normal” pro-self, pro-social behaviors and “abnormal” anti-self, anti-social behaviors. The existential or identity values among them contribute to the construction of self and the “architecture” of the “puppeteer mind” pulling the strings of the “puppet” brain; although at times their roles are reversed. I have in mind genetic, drug (e.g., prescribed and recreational), and environmental influences such as pollution.   

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The ideal state of Feeling, Doing, and Thinking centers on balance while retaining sufficient flexibility to allow the dominance of one value dimension over the others even as it recruits the others to serve a useful purpose before giving way to the dominance of another dimension. Hopefully this dynamism serves the right reasons and not the wrong reasons. There can be unhealthy deviations or bending of Feeler, Doer, or Thinker dimensions resulting in “garden variety” and “more serious” problems in living. In the case of more serious Feeler-Deviations, we have the examples of manic excitement, depression, and loss of empathy to the point of psychopathic behavior. Doer-Deviations can result in self-defeating perfectionism and procrastination. Thinker-Deviations can trigger obsessions, paranoia, fanaticism, anger, extreme nationalism and religiosity; or whatever “flavor of the moment” influences susceptible and suggestable imaginations. Today’s zeitgeist appears to favor terrorism wearing the mask of religiosity and protest. Is political correctness a clinical or subclinical mask of some underlying pseudocultural pathology discussed in previous blogs?

Less acute and more “Garden variety” Feeler-Deviations might include flattened affect, inappropriate affect, shyness, cynicism, alienation, and disturbed communication. Doer-Deviations may result in compulsive behaviors and rebellion against authority. Thinker-Deviations might cause one to become more an observer than participant in life. My point is that the organization and exercise of “not so little” dimensions of value is behind lots of emotions and behaviors. They are also behind “thought-styles” psychologist Ellis made important in his approach to psychotherapy.

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Each of these dimensions finds expression as “building blocks,” and some impact all of us as habitual self-evaluators. They become “existential dimensions of self and self-esteem” where the Feeler-Self “makes love,” The Doer-Self “makes work,” and the Thinker-Self pursues a search for meaning, planning and problem solving. Different moments and challenges call for different “valuational styles” giving rise to different “belief systems,” giving rise to different “thought styles,” giving rise to different emotions and behaviors. This involves different permutations (i.e., having to do with prioritizing and ordering) of Feeler, Doer, Thinker capacities and sensitivities. Making matters more complex is the fact that thought-styles lurk behind most emotions and behaviors as discussed in the pages of The Guide to Rational Living and Reason and Emotion in Psychotherapy by Ellis. This is consistent with the basic assumptions of axiological psychology, and now philosophical counseling. Our Three Little Words stand for not so little dimensions of value having great consequences.   

Who Are You?

Are you a Feeler, Doer, or Thinker? In some ways, let’s hope you’re none of them, and in other ways let’s hope you’re all of them. On average we can be seen as one of them as we struggle to be all of them while being ready to deal with the moment, the past, and the future. It helps to be on friendly terms (i.e., aware) of our Feeler, Doer, and Thinker selves remembering that flexibility beats rigidity coming from either the axiological mind or molecular brain.

Source: Google free image

You wouldn’t want your hand to freeze on the steering wheel, or your foot to freeze on the accelerator of your racing car. The same may be said of our Feeler, Doer, Thinker selves which are under the control of our General Capacity to Value where “carpe diem” (i.e., “seize the moment”) rules, and hopefully without the bias and excesses of Feeler-fears,Doer-procrastinations, or Thinker-paranoia and  obsessions, etc. Carpe Diem flexibility is important to getting the good things in life for ourselves and those we love. It’s important to own and not disown our deceptively simple, powerful and Not so Little Selves. Axiological psychology and axiological science makes the study of three value dimensions a priority of utmost clinical relevance. They cut to the heart and soul of everything psychological as taproots of all that is psychological.       

As to carpe diem flexibility, consider the boxer in the ring making moves towards, away, and against his opponent. The metaphor captures the “dance” of Feeler, Doer, and Thinker sensitivities and behaviors. This is consistent with the distilled wisdom of the ancients and Biblical wisdom found in the Book of Ecclesiastes meaning “teacher,” and dates back to 500 BC when Jews lived without a king in a province of the Persian Empire. After thinking about “carpe diem flexibility” and the Book of Ecclesiastes, I discovered by accident a book by J. Borg at Barnes and Noble. I was interested in what he had to say about such things. According Borg, Ecclesiastes is the most “user friendly” book of the bible because it speaks to the modern world, even though it does so without benefit of value science. Ecclesiastes also resonates with Zen Buddhism and Eastern wisdom revealing the universality (i.e., cross-cultural, cross-national) of human values and valuations. This ancient voice offers a modern critique of conventional religious and sacred wisdom, and advises us to beware of egos and self-esteem or vanity caught in “chasing after the wind.” It speaks to the question of whether life is worth living knowing we’re from dust and destined to return to dust. Borg, is professor emeritus of religion and culture at Oregon State University and he rightly observes that “scholars don’t agree on how to interpret the book of Ecclesiastes.” He and I are in agreement. We find it life affirming with reminders how to live our lives then as now. It’s a voice that teaches us to live simply, fully, and strongly and vigorously rather than tentatively which is consistent with my belief that life is a construction, that we must find meaning and vital absorbing interests on our own, and pursue them vigorously. Professor Borg suggests the Book of Ecclesiastes is “alternative wisdom” much as I believe axiological science and psychology to be "alternative wisdom." These arew orld-views separated by more than 2000 years and the ancient wisdom seems all the more remarkable considering its ancient origin. Both Ecclesiastes and axiological science remain roads less travelled and with the best years ahead of them. If there is such a thing as “true wisdom,” my guess is that it must include such anxient wisdom as well as that of emerging axiological science with its Three Little Words representing not to little Feeler, Doer and Thinker dimensions of self. Life is a gift. Deal with it. Enjoy it, and consider the following which is the best known passage of Ecclesiastes, and I quote:        

"There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens:

    a time to be born and a time to die, 

    a time to plant and a time to uproot,

    a time to kill and a time to heal,

    a time to tear down and a time to build,

    a time to weep and a time to laugh,

    a time to mourn and a time to dance,

    a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,

    a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,

    a time to search and a time to give up,

    a time to keep and a time to throw away,

    a time to tear and a time to mend,

    a time to be silent and a time to speak,

    a time to love and a time to hate,

    a time for war and a time for peace."

The Big Picture:   

Today’s psychology remains a pre-scientific discipline because it has ignored the scientific relevance of values and their contribution to the “puppeteer mind” pulling the strings of “puppet brain.” Clinical psychology has ignored how “twisted values” produce “twisted thoughts,” be they “garden variety” or “more serious.”  Brain neuroscience has raced ahead of axiological science and this is a gap we hope to close by drawing attention to axiological science. Meanwhile I will leave “twisted molecules” to neuroscience and focus on “twisted values” with axiological science. I suppose this makes me a new breed of psychologist. One who makes values in the world of facts equally important, with facts the subject of natural science and values remaining beyond the reach of historic natural science.

In order to reach values we must have a second system of science. This failure of psychology is an accident of history (i.e., because a science of values defied the best minds for thousands of years). This historical accident is the tragic flaw in the character of my profession and beyond that, the character of societies and civilization with their growing number of discontents.  

http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=n%3A283155%2Cp_27%3ARobert%20S... (link is external)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_S._Hartman (link is external)

http://www.amazon.com/Science-Axiological-Psychology-Institute-Axiology/... (link is external)

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/beyond-good-and-evil/201211/what-is...

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Our science of values and new thinking in psychology (remembering that morals are normative values) originated with the convergence of psychological and philosophical thought with Hartman’s theory of value predicting the existence of three core dimensions of value having descriptive, explanatory, and predictive powers. My research results support these predictions and transform philosopher Hartman’s theory of value into an empirical science of values and valuations. This is a revolution in science and psychology. It is a new paradigm as defined by historian Thomas Kuhn in the pages of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. The evidence is now so strong this science can no longer be ignored. This is a “paradigmatic shift” in science and psychology, and one that never existed in my college days at Amherst and Austin. The only “voice” at the time that made sense to me was that of Professor Milton Rokeach who argued that the concept of value is the most important, least understood and least studied concept in psychology and the social sciences including economics; the weakness of which gave us the Great Depression of 1929 and the Great Recession of 2008, from which we’re slowly recovering at present while its delayed impact in Europe and China has them struggling to do the same. I mean to imply that value science gives us hope that the future will bring a transformation of “opportunistic capitalism” into “humanistic capitalism,” and all that this healthy change implies.      

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The foremost applications of axiological science are valuemetrics and axiological psychology amounting to an “alternative psychology” and “alternative to psychological testing” without psychological testing. This is because of the ability of value science to go deep and tap into layers of values at the “heart and soul” of everything psychological. This is not science fiction. This is difficult for some to grasp who are more familiar with classical conditioning, operant conditioning, instrumental conditioning, behaviorism, cognitive psychology, positive psychology, behavioral economics, the intuitive approaches of schools of clinical psychology, and so forth. Few suspect how so much rides on so little, which is to say that so much rides on the organization and exercise of values. This makes values appreciation, values clarification, and values measurement the Holy Grail of my profession and that of all the social sciences!   

Source: Google free image

The universality of what our Three Little Words stand for means values are at work at many levels from emotions to the constructing of self and self-esteem aimed at coping with the moment as well as memories and the future. We are in fact dealing with the building blocks of being and becoming, and they need to be studied and understood with the same precision natural science brings to the study of facts and neuroscience brings to the study of brain. Our Three Little Words represent an approach to mind that natural science has problems with and has forgotten. The mind, as much as the brain, is too important to be left to philosophy and religion alone, and here we have a lot of catching up to do.    

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We are now at the threshold of a new era with our new science and none too soon! We have tomorrow’s psychology today. We have the “seeds” of tomorrow’s preventive psychology today because value science enables culture-free and religiously-neutral approaches to moral education which is tomorrow’s preventive psychology. All this is one of the world’s best kept secrets in spite of the fact that entrepreneurial business consultants have successfully marketed axiological science and valuemetrics to business and corporate interests the world over; apart from my private practice applications.   

http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=n%3A283155%2Cp_27%3ARobert%20S... (link is external)

http://www.amazon.com/Science-Axiological-Psychology-Institute-Axiology/... (link is external)

Conclusion:   

For years psychology modeled itself after medicine and the natural sciences, and failed to grasp the clinical significance of a scientific approach to values and morals. This included Abraham Maslow’s speculating that the concept of value might be obsolete for lack of precise meaning. Psychologists Milton Rokeach and Albert Ellis rejected the idea and later Maslow came around to accepting that philosopher Robert Hartman (a professor at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (The National Autonomous University of Mexico is a public research university in Mexico City. It is the largest university in Latin America) was onto something! That something inspired my independent research for more than twenty-five years while engaged in private practice and work as a senior staff psychologist at the outpatient clinic of a government hospital in New York City.  

Axiological science or the science of values is based on Hartman’s theory of value and my collaboration with some of Hartman’s students and others interested in advancing his contributions. My published data established the validity of Hartman’s test of habitual evaluative habits, including those of habitual self-evaluators like you and me. We’re all self-evaluators caught up in habits that concern identity and self-esteem. I’m referring to the test Hartman developed in Mexico City in collaboration with his student Mario Cardenas, a student of both Hartman and psychoanalysis Eric Fromm. As previously noted, this test gives us “psychological testing” without psychological tests, and this should get your attention. It is born of a system of “alternative wisdom” embedded in a rigorously developed and testable a priori theory of value. The empirical validation of this theory and is predictions amounts to an  “alternative psychology” and “alternative psychometrics” that promises to enrich traditional psychology and transform it into a science of psychology, and this should get the world’s attention. This achievement clears a path for other social sciences to follow. It provides a foundation for tomorrow’s preventive psychology today which I equate with science-based, values and moral education.

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Medicine involves the “artistic” application of natural sciences such as chemistry, biology, physics, anatomy and so forth. Valuecentric or values-based Axiological psychology involves the “artistic” application of axiological science. We must have an “integrated science” approach to psychology, but not merely the integration of the many natural sciences; but the integration of two systems of science; namely natural science and value science. This advance is a rejection of Abraham Maslow’s suggestion the concept of value might be obsolete and fulfills the wisdom of Ellis, Rokeach, and Hartman while clarifying the meaning of a tragic flaw in the character of civilization and its discontents identified by Sigmund Freud.  

We all end up juggling what’s not so simple behind the Three Little Words of “Feeler, Doer, and Thinker.” We do so in order to meet the demands of the moment, deal with memories, and plan our future. This can involve Feeler-empathy and emotional intelligence or the lack of it. It can involve Doer actions and pragmatism or the lack of it. It can involve Thinker reasoning and rational problem solving or the lack of it. Hopefully we execute our value-vision with carpe diem strength and flexibility much as the boxer in the ring makes moves towards, away and against his opponent, and with the Ecclesiastical awareness of “a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens.”

Let’s recall that responding to a Feeler-oriented person as a Doer or Thinker won’t work. Responding to a Thinker-oriented person as a Feeler or Doer won’t work: pacing Feelers with feeling, Doers with action, and Thinkers with reason works better. Otherwise, transitions require both skill and sensitivity.  We “instinctively” know this to be true; but often forget. Let’s remember the deeper meaning of our Three Little Words giving us a scientific approach to clinical psychology.    

References:

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© Dr. Leon Pomeroy, Ph.D.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/beyond-good-and-evil/201508/are-you-feeler-doer-or-thinker