The majority of programs on the 'net that focus on interactions with humans using natural language processing are grounded in a perspective that is focused on direct interaction with the consciousness of the individual and depend on such interaction for gathering of information.
However, there is a lot of information available that is unconscious and can aid in identifying underlying intent etc of the individual, often suppressed by consciousness as being 'not appropriate at this time'.
Our unconscious nature is grounded in a focus on instinctive self-preservation (be it of self or species) and as such is the source of emotional expressions focused on such preservation regardless of any social 'requirements' for expression. This realm of the unconscious is tied to our holistic, organic, parallel, immediate, interactions with context and include what Jung called "Mythic" thinking; an emphasis on the psyche processing information through use of sensory experiences such as images etc., and reflects a mindset grounded in our more primitive natures as a developing aware species. We note that, linguistically, this mindset is limited and tied to the use of analogies/metaphor to the local context where such includes local history/legends/myths. As such, any sense of personal identity is tied to the local context and so difficulties come in attempts to move the individual or species to some other locale.
The development of consciousness reflects the development of "directed" thinking and the focus on thinking in words, and so an emphasis on the serial and the use of delay, where such allows for refinement in details processing as it does the ability to suppress instinctive expressions in that the realm of consciousness includes the learning of social rules of conduct applied to regulating instinctive expressions - either due to inappropriateness socially or due to a premature response to some stimulus where the precision, and delay, of consciousness identifies an aspect of a stimulus that changes the overall perspective.
The IDM work (
http://www.emotionaliching.com/AbstractD.html ) and the model's application through the Emotional I Ching (
http://www.emotionaliching.com ) brings out the ability to 'communicate' with our sub/un-conscious and in doing so give us access to complex forms not obvious in the normal day-to-day dynamics of normal, verbal, language usage. As such we can gather information quickly as compared to the extensive questioning required through basic linguistic interaction.
The information gathered is always 'vague' in that it can lack the precision of consciousness but it can also reveal material that consciousness has intentionally suppressed from expression/consideration. In this revelation issues can be identified and more quickly resolved than the traditional 'talking cures' of current depth psychology methods. (See example in the EIC FAQ).
Thus the Emotional I Ching work, and the associated IDM abstract domain model, give us new insights into how the neural hierarchy of our being operates, with levels operating almost autonomously but with a top-down property ready which can influence all levels below it (bottom-up can influence immediate levels above/below but top-down is more imposing in its regulatory manner)
The EIC program is a particular example of using a small set of questions to elicit a generic perspective of some situation/persona. As the book covers, we can also create alternative questions based on different contexts to elicit the same overall responses and so insights into unconscious activities at work. The ESSENTIAL element is that the questions used are in the form of asymmetric dichotomies and ordered in a strict hierarchy from general to particular - and so a focus on syntax to bring out precision in responses.
In the past the realm of depth psychology etc has required considerable time periods to reveal underlying concerns of individuals in that the suppression of information, and so resistance issues etc, have to be lifted/bypassed to get at the core issues present. With the IDM work this time period is reduced and with such tools as the EIC many can 'solve it yourself' by forming an intimate relationship with the unconscious and so be sensitive to those vague feelings that appear at first to have no 'meaning'. That said, the limited number of questions aids to limit the depth analysis where some times additional aid is required in the form of a human therapist.
