Effective Thinking Process - Essay Example

Question 1

The letter, which Barbara Branden read at the commencement of her lecture, was written by a catatonic schizophrenic young man to his mother. Branden included the letter in her article to illustrate to the audience how a disorganized and jumbled up thinking process can result in an unrealistic end where the presented premises do not integrate with the conclusion and the purpose of the thinking is apparently lost. Noteworthy, an effective thinking process must be incorporated and have a logical progression to arrive at an evocative conclusion.

Question 2

Barbara ostensibly illuminates that in "front-seat driving," an individual engages in an active and purposeful thinking process while in "back-seat driving," the individual’s mind is passive and the thinking process is associational. In "front-seat driving," the individual directs and controls each thinking process taking note of signs and the overall progression of the thinking process just as a driver would take full and sentient control of the car.

Contrary, in "back-seat driving," an individual is merely a passive contemplator, not directing the development of his thought but noting whatever his subconscious feeds him hence the conclusion that they finally reach in their thinking process is directed by random images, memories, and emotions rather than reasoning. I have seen this happen in class when the instructor asks students to think about why they fail in certain modules. Most of them end up thinking temporarily about their passing friends, the difficulty of the content, and their family backgrounds in a jumbled and illogical manner that is never conclusive or illuminative.

Question 3

In the scale, the unfocused side is characterized by a state of bewilderment, of mental fog while the focused side is characterized by luminous awareness, mental clarity, and consciousness. However, our ability to focus resembles a dimmer light switch since many people are in the intermediate categories between focused and unfocused. The level of ‘focus’ is a continuum and not only ‘focused’ or ‘unfocused’.