Information Aspects as Building Blocks of Interaction

A lot is happening behind the scenes when two people communicate. Not only are they exchanging verbal information on or around a certain topic, but they are jumping from information aspect to information aspect and sending each other signals from different functions that affect the other person in certain ways. These subtle interactions can be easily observed and studied if you focus your attention on them; otherwise they go unnoticed.

In brief, businesslike conversations of a few minutes or so, people may speak using the "voice" of just a single function. In longer, informal conversations between people with a low level of compatilibility, people generally get stuck in a certain voice and can't get out of it, which causes mental fatigue if the interaction lasts for more than five or ten minutes (probably as a result of certain groups of neurons temporarily depleting their resources). But in conversations between people who are highly compatible, partners usually cover a wide range of information aspects within a relatively short period, typically speaking from each function for no more than a few minutes at a time - and often for as little as 10 or 20 seconds. This creates a sensation of mental pliability and emotional flexibility (different groups of neurons are given time to renew their resources before reactivating).

Every person continually experiences various sentiments, feelings, thoughts, sensations, insights, questions, problems, etc. that build up and cause distress if they are not shared and resolved (or put in their proper perspective). Some of these are associated with feelings of confidence and personal achievement, while others evoke feelings of self-pity, guilt and self-doubt, or anger. These sentiments and realizations relate to different information aspect.

When a person has no outlet for expression of his sentiments and realizations, he begins to insert them - often ineffectively - in communication at work and elsewhere with random people. Unless these people respond in a certain "correct" way, the person is unable to develop his thought adequately and resolve the sentiment or realization. So they continue to build up. If they reach a critical level, chronic distress, accentuations, perversions, and neuroses form.

In communication between psychologically compatible partners, people are able to share their sentiments and realizations more or less freely and hop from information aspect to information aspect, expressing the most pressing or interesting sentiment of the moment. Conversations take the form of complete, multi-faceted interaction, and not merely an exchange of words on a given topic. As people touch on their current sentiments or experience across many different areas of life, partners have the chance to conveniently share more long-term sentiments and realizations on the same topic and resolve them with the other's help. When people communicate rigidly around one or two information aspects, there are rarely convenient opportunities to bring up sentiments and realizations relating to other aspects.