ABSTRACT
A story from India clarifies the nature of comprehension modes and why they are independent of culture. Comprehension modes involve how we understand a narrative (or experience), whereas the content constitutes what the narrative is about. As the story illustrates, different people can hear the same story, but use different comprehension modes. This occurs frequently today when individuals read the same Internet material, but one understands it as a factual narrative, while another comprehends it as fiction or propaganda. Problems arise when an individual assumes that their comprehension mode is the only possible one. We avoid disputes by recognizing that each comprehension mode is one among several equally valid alternatives. This is analogous to how Jung’s typology of functions can help resolve conflicts: when someone who depends upon thinking to understand the world disagrees with another individual who depends upon intuition to do the same, they clash. The problem is not the difference in thinking and intuition, but the assumption that their type is the only possible one, rather than one of several equally valid ways of perceiving the world. Furthermore, what we experience at the moment depends upon culture and circumstance. By contrast, comprehension modes – how we understand the world – reflect basic human capacities, independent of culture – in the same way that thinking, feeling, sensation and intuition are also fundamental human abilities.
