Nesting and De-Nesting Exercises:
A Differentiation of Observer Types Based on the Failure to Use Context

Susie Vrobel, The Institute for Fractal Research, Kassel, Germany
IF papers 2/2005

Abstract

When we embed our present situation into a larger temporal context, our perspective is altered. We have taken a step back and are thus able to look at our present state in a relativized way. This is useful when we try to anticipate results of our actions or inaction or simply want to imagine how we will judge our present decision at a later point in time. Contextualisation facilitates social integration by generating clearly demarcated boundaries which define the observer-participant’s identity. Failure to use context may result in pathological conditions. Disorders such as schizophrenia and depression may be grouped into observer types defined by the degree of contextualisation achieved as well as by the existence of present embedding processes. The borderline separating a "normal" observer participant from one suffering from a biopsychosocial disorder is fleeting. It is suggested that congruence and non-congruence of inside and outside simultaneity determines to what degree an observer participant is an "interfacial misfit".