Making plausible
A Jazz connoisseur finds the sequence of chords during improvising highly plausible. Someone who hears this music for the first time, may not detect a pattern in it. An art historian will see allegories in the mosaics of medieval church windows, whereas a tourist would see haphazard displays of colour. A person can say “I don’t understand myself”, and with that he means that his impulses or feelings are not plausible to himself, that he cannot deduce anything from them and does not understand their meaning and purpose. The psychological system is unceasingly occupied by the guiding distinction plausible/implausible. One must constantly make a choice from the abundance of that which one perceives, feels and thinks, and from the abundance of signals and stimulants to which one is exposed in the environment. One must choose how to generate plausible, “meaningful” information for oneself, and what one allows to pass by from the background noise of the (inner) world. This distinction will usually take place implicitly in most areas. Often a cause is required to trigger explicit plausibility activities (i.e. unexpected events, danger, pain, different plans, unusual occurrences): “Why? How so? Why this way and not another way? Oh!” Because of limited capacity one must decide what one wishes to understand and what may be perceived and yet remain uncomprehended. When making this decision, and other ones too, it is possible to err and one can fail in one’s attempt to make something plausible. Therefore, counselling must be utilised in this guiding process of the psyche.