Patterns & Metaphors
Ambiguous visual illusions
Template:
Illusions are perceptual experiences in which information arising from external stimuli leads to a misleading impression. Certain kinds of visual illusion allow the same image to be interpreted in two quite distinct ways. Classic examples are the figure and ground illusion (e.g. white vase or two black profiles) and the Necker cube. Observers see the latter either as though looking up at its base or looking down on its top, and can alternate between the two interpretations. In both examples one interpretation excludes the other. Some people, especially the elderly, have considerable difficulty experiencing such object reversibility.
Metaphor:
Some important patterns of information on the social environment may lend themselves to quite distinct interpretations, neither of which is more real than the other. It is possible that some classic contrasting interpretations of social phenomena (e.g. nature vs nurture, individual development vs social development, centralization vs decentralization) may be seen in this way. One such interpretation necessarily excludes the other. Some people would experience difficulty alternating between such (complementary) interpretations.
[Features] The mutually exclusive nature of the interpretations, the possibility of alternating between them, and the fact that neither is more appropriate than the other.
[Contrast] Major shifts in policy (e.g. in a 2-party democracy) may entrain (or derive from) a major shift in perception in public opinion that could be described by analogy to such visual ambiguity. The switch may be from perceiving nationalization as an appropriate policy to one in which denationalization is perceived as fitting the actual conditions. The condition may not however specifically call for one in preference to the other, although one of the interpretations must be made. Not everyone is capable of such shifts; many shift perspective according to the requirements of their environments.
[Keys] Other visual illusions. Auditory and tactile illusions of psychiatric significance. Hallucinations.<
