THE COLLECTED WORKS OF PETER G. OSSORIO ♦•♦♦ VOLUME I: PERSONS PERSONS PETER G. OSS0RI0 DESCRIPTIVE PSYCHOLOGY PRESS ANN ARBOR ©Copyright 1995 by Peter G. Ossorio All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photo-copying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. First Printing, 1995 Originally published as Linguistic Research Institute Report No. 3, Persons, Vol. 1 and Persons, Vol. 11, ©Copyright 1966. Linguistic Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado. Published in Ann Arbor, MI by Descriptive Psychology Press 1019 Baldwin Avenue Ann Arbor, MI 48104 ISBN: 0-9625661-8-7 Manufactured in the United States of America. TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE TO THE SERIES ............................... vu PREFACE .......................................... xii References Not Listed in Main Text ................... xv FORE WORD ....................................... xvii INTRODUCTION ...................................... 1 I. Advantages .....................·............. 3 A. Coherence ................................ 3 B. Comparability ............................. 4 C. Cumulativeness ............................ 5 D. Substantive Adequacy ........................ 6 E. Autonomy without Isolation ................... 8 IL Difficulties . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 12 A. Theory vs. Description . .. .. .. 12 B. What is Descriptive? ....................... 16 III. Descriptions and the Use of Concepts .............. 24 Figure 1. Inter-observer Comparison ............ 28 IV. Evaluation of a Descriptive Account ............... 45 PART ONE-INTENTIONAL ACTION ....................... 47 I. Intentional Action-a brief description .. .. .. .. .. 53 Figure 1. PI: Paradigm for Intentional Action ...... 54 II. The Use of the Concept ........................ 56 III. Confusions and Resources in Complex Systems . .. 60 IV. Criteria for PI Concepts ........................ 64 V. PI as a Standard .. .. .. .. .. .. 69 VI. Types of Action . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 70 VII. Some Psychopathology .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 74 VIII.Review . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 78 PARTTWO-lNDMDUALPERSONS ........................ 79 Figure 1. PII: Paradigm for the Concept of a Person . 83 I. Types of Series . 83. II. Needs . .. .. .. .. .. .. 88 III. PI and PII Concept-types ....................... 91 IV. Interaction of Persons . .. .. .. .. .. 96 V. Individual Persons . .. .. .. .. .. .. 102 VI. Review . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 106 PART THREE-PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSONS . .. .. .. 109 I. Pragmatic Aspects of Language . 112 II. Some Pragmatic Features of PsychologicalLanguage . 115 III. Second-generation Psycholinguistics . .. .. .. .. .. 125 ❖ ❖ PARTFOUR-THEORETICALPERSONS .................... 137 I. The Mediation of Generalization . .. .. .. .. 141 IL The Mediation of Responses .. .. .. 152 III. Parsimony, Understanding, and Psychological Explanations . 166 A. Knowing More about Persons .. .. 173 B. Doing More about Persons . .. .. 175 PARTFNE-UBIQUITOUS PERSONS ...................... 181 I. Mediation S-R theory .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 183 IL Motivation Theory . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 184 III. Perceptual Defense .. .. .. .. .. .. 188 IV. Psycholinguistics . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 188 V. The Social Psychology of Psychological Experiments . 196 VI. Cognitive Factors in Emotion . .. .. .. .. .. 199 VIL Uniqueness and Functional Autonomy ............. 201 VIII.Other Suggestions . .. .. .. .. .. .. 212 APPENDIXA-PSYCHOLOGICAL DESCRIPTION AND PHILOSOPHICAL THEORY .............................. 221 I. The Issue of "Dodging the Real Issues" . .. .. 225 IL Truth, Assumptions, and PhilosophicalTheory .. 234 APPENDIX B-NORMAL AND ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR .......... 249 I. What is denied? .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 250 II. The Relative Scope of Rule-following and Underlying Process ................................... 251 APPENDIX C-PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORY,PERSONS, AND LINGUISTIC THEORY .............................. 255 REFERENCES . .. .. 271 PETER G. OSSORIO SOLE-AUTHORED PUBLICATIONS .......... 277 INDEX 281 PREFACE TO THE SERIES The Collected Works of Peter G. Ossorio Peter G. Ossorio's works are unique. In a trivial sense the same can be said of anyone's work -it is Jones' work, nobody has the same interests and style as Jones, thus the work is unique. But Ossorio's works are unique in the most profound sense possible and on several counts: in the breadth of his subject matter, the depth and rigor of his an­ alysis, the power and clarity of his exposition, and the absolute coherence of his conceptual framework. Most importantly, they are unique in their significance. Peter G. Ossorio has accom­ plished what nobody else has seriously attempted: he has articu­ lated a rigorous and coherent framework for understanding persons as persons. If past experience is any guide, this claim will strike some as impossibly overstated, while others wonder why that would seem to be a worthwhile accomplishment. These reactions say a great deal about the intellectual climate of "behavioral sci­ ence" in the second half of the twentieth century-and they are substantially the same reactions which greeted Ossorio's first book, Persons, in the early 1960's. To those who doubt the possibility of such accomplishment, this series serves as a reality check: read the works and judge for yourself. The second group may be reassured by scanning the list of Ossorio's publications; you will discover that the concept of "persons as persons" includes behavior, language, culture, the real world, and the doing of science, psychotherapy, computer-based simulations, and many other significant social practices. Indeed, Ossorio's work-which has become the foundation and core of a discipline called Descriptive Psychology by its Vll Vlll ❖ Persons practitioners-has had profound influence in a remarkably broad and diverse set of arenas. Directly, Ossorio has influenced the practice of psychotherapy and the conceptualization of psychopathology; the teaching of numerous aspects of behav­ ioral science including personality theory, projective testing, and multi-cultural studies; the understanding of language, verbal behavior, and its technical implementations within computer environments; the practice and philosophy of science; the un­ derstanding of cultural differences and their implications; the technology of information storage, retrieval and utilization; and, most recently, the creation of robots that exhibit increasingly the important characteristics of persons. Indirectly, through his students and colleagues, Ossorio has influenced many other fields; among them are the theory of organizations and the practice of influencing organizational culture; the development of computer software and artificial persons; the conceptualiza­ tion of spirituality; the theory of consciousness, hypnosis and altered states; and much more. Any editor of a series of "collected works" faces an obvious question: why collect the works? Why not let them stand on their own, as published?Persons) The answer in this case is simple to give: the large majority of these works (including the first, seminal volume, have been published only in limited circulation working editions. These works, with few exceptions, were literally unpublishable within the "mainstream" of behav­ ioral science when they were written. Ossorio was making,Persons literally and intentionally, a "fresh start" on the doing of behav­ ioral science, for reasons which he clearly articulates in and elsewhere, and which have become increasingly cogent over players,time. who responded, "That's all well and good, but does it Metaphorically, Ossorio was talking chess to tic-tac-toe get you three-in-a-row?" Suffice it to say that the tic-tac-toe players decided what was worthy of publication in mainstream journals and books. And to extend the metaphor a bit further, it is evident that the mainstream of behavioral science has Preface to the Series ❖ lX progressively realized that tic-tac-toe is a no-win game, and we perhaps should have been playing chess all along. For those who have tired of the trivial insularity of tic­ tac-toe behavioral science, the present series represents a sub­ stantive and substantial alternative. Descriptive Psychology Press intends to publish this series at the rate of at least one volume per year. In the spirit of making a fresh start, let's begin. Anthony 0. Putman, Ph.D. Series Editor Ann Arbor, Ml, March 1995 PREFACE If there was ever a volume in psychology that merited the appellation, sui generis, it is the first volume of Peter Ossorio's works, Persons (1966). When, in 1965, the first chapters were shared with those of us in Boulder, they came like a presenta­ tion from another world. He simply was not talking or writing in the way that ordinary psychology was conducted. Persons was neither a theory presented as possibly true and certainly testable empirically; nor a methodological treatise on how to conduct some varieties of psychological research; and it cer­ tainly was not the summary of a series of empirical studies. If Persons was not one of these three recognizable forms of profes­ sional writing, what was it? The other categories of writing that come to mind-personal essay, mystical insight-all invited the dismissal of the work as not serious and surely not the work of a sophisticated professional. But those of us who had conversed and argued with Peter knew that he was both sophisticated and serious,