Looking Glass

Welcome back to Looking Glass and welcome back to the Cause & Effect series. The purpose of this series is to show you concrete examples of Sherlockian deduction as well as help you over the plateau you hit when this happens: “I know what hand he uses…so that’s cool”. In the previous part we laid out a scene of two individuals having dinner at a restaurant. Then we started making observations, putting you in the scene as if you were observing this dinner for two. In this part you and I are going to take that raw data and extrapolate it.

Why Analyse?

If we’re going to get over this profiling plateau and make deeper, below-the-surface deductions, we have to learn to analyse information. This involves taking the information we observe and putting it through a questioning process. At the end of this we’ll come away with MORE DATA as well as hints to connections not observed in the scene we collected information from. This is a delicate process and we have to remember to wear our safety gear, and by safety gear I mean proper framing. If you aren’t conscientious about how you think you will ruin the data with biases and logical fallacies. You think I’m joking. Don’t ruin the data! Think of the data as your only child that you want to protect and keep pure. Nothing can ruin the data. Biases and logical fallacies will twist and warp the information we so carefully collected. So, for example, if you have a bias against a specific type of food, and you see an individual eating said food, you will likely have some form of a negative association with that person due to the food you dislike. You may come away with the ‘deduction’ that this person is bad or has a particular palate or is mean to puppies based on the food. DO NOT DO THIS. Biases and logical fallacies are natural, normal bits of our existence; however, they will live separate from our logical reasonings. Sorry about that, had to protect my precious data. Now onto the fun analysing.

Seven Questions

There are many ways to analyse information. Who, what, when, where, why, and how. Motive, ability, opportunity. What the old ladies in Eastern Europe saw (which is basically the equivalent to CCTV). I personally use a seven question method. I’ve found that these seven questions fully break apart and examine any and all data that you want to and don’t want to know (if I had to bet money this is how Vsauce plans a video, that’s how far these questions will reach). These questions are:

Divisibility: How is it divided/what are its parts?

Comparability: How is it comparable/what is classified on similar basis?

Connectivity: How is it connected/what else does it connect to?

Disturbability: How is it disturbed/what can it in-turn disturb?

Reorderability: How does it transform/what are the stages of this?

Substitutability: How can it be substituted/what can it substitute?

Satisfiability: How can it be satisfied/what is satisfied by it?

Now before we go right into analysing the observations from last week, let’s test this system and make sure it works. Always test with easily understood albeit broad enough variables. Let’s say we’re analysing a man. Doesn’t matter who, it’s every-man. Apply the seven questions to a man:

Can divisibility be discovered through a man? Yes. A man can be divided into parts like eye, ear, nose, hand, heart, head, leg, fingers, nails, muscles, bones, and the man himself is a part of this universe.

Can comparability be discovered through a man? Yes. A man is comparable to the other men, other living creatures and nonliving things. Certain animals like monkey are more similar to man. What are similar to a man? A man is also different from other creatures and the other fellow men and women. What are different from a man? Man are classified on the basis of comparison as: tall, dwarf, black, white, etc.

Can connectivity be discovered through a man? Yes. The parts of a man are interconnected. The man himself is connected to the other men and women. How the parts of a man are interconnected? How a man is connected to all the others?

Can disturbability be discovered through a man? Yes. There are several factors which affect (disturb) the man. What can disturb man? Man himself disturb the other things in the universe. What can be disturbed by a man?

Can reorderability be discovered through a man? Yes. A man himself transforms through several states. What are the states through which a man transforms himself?

Can substitutability be discovered through a man? Yes. A man can be substituted with another man. Who can substitute a man? A man himself can substitute others. Who can be substituted by the man?

Can satisfiability be discovered through a man? Yes. The man satisfies his needs through his activities. How does a man fulfill his requirements? A man also fulfills other needs through his activities. How does a man fulfill others requirements?

So as you can see this very quickly becomes a full economic system of data connected in all manners (by the way, a basic knowledge in economic will help you substantially in your endeavours to analyse information). So the system works, and it’ll work on anything. Person, place, thing, or concept. Even works on non-nouns. Adjectives and verbs can be broken down. The action of running itself can be disturbed, reordered, and satisfied.

Dinner for Two

We have observations, we have a data processor, now we need to feed carefully. This process is fun, but be warned it can be a bit tedious at times. Here’s a link to Part One if you need to review the observations made (x). Ok, done? So let’s get to it! Remember, we are not making deductions at this point. We’re only analysing data. There will be a few conclusions but that’s part of the connection process. The first thing we’ll do is list the observations in a way that gets rid of any extra fat while separating different pieces of data.

Subject A

Physical Observations

Male.

Work boots; tan, heavy duty, steel toed, dusty albeit clean.

Jeans; clean, untorn, covers top of boots.

Right pocket; outline of wallet, no keys.

T-shirt; grey, v-neck.

Hair; short.

Facial hair; clean shaven, no nicks.

*Hands; rough texture, potentially sweaty, pointer and middle knuckles (both hands) split/partially healed, discolouration on pointer and middle fingers (left hand) as well as around the nails.

Body; muscular/well toned, tanned, 1.8 metres tall (6 feet)

Language Observations

Continuously shifts in seat.

*Continuously wipes palms under table.

Laughs and smiles.

Occasionally rubs nose.

Leans forward with arms on table when involved in deep conversation.

Leg bounces up and down under table.

Ordered a beer; sits on left hand side.

Subject B

Physical Observations

Female

Feet; wearing black flats, well worn albeit good condition.

*Legs; shaven.

Attire; casual floral patterned knee high dress, jean jacket without noticeable rips or tears.

Hair; shoulder length, recently curled.

Nails; well groomed, manicured, painted red.

Hands; ink stains on pinky side.

Eyes; subtle mascara, subtle eyeliner.

**Ears; black stud earring (right ear)

Nose; blemish on bridge of nose.

Body; 1.6 metres tall (5 foot 6 inches)

Language Observations

*Legs; crossed right over left under table.

**Leans back when playing with earring.

Ordered a mixed drink later on and stir with straw between sips meanwhile nodding as Subject A speaks.

Does most of the talking; uses simple hand gestures.

Now all of our data has been stripped of fat. What we should do is put each one of these pieces of data through the seven question processor…but that’s going to take up a lot more post space than we’re comfortable with. Instead we’re going to analyse a few major pieces of information and the rest is homework. You get to analyse all of the data and see what you come up with (it’s actually really fun and it’ll help teach you through experience and hands on learning. Looking Glass lab experiments now available at home!).

Subject A

Work boots; tan, heavy duty, steel toed, dusty albeit clean

Divisibility: Boots are made of various plastics and leathers or leather substitutes, steel in the toe. The dust is made up of small particles of hair, skin, dirt, substitute dirt. Dust is most common and prevalent on construction and other blue-collar work sites as well as border blue-collar field crew infrastructure mappers.

Comparability: Boots are comparable to any kind of shoe, however most comparable to other types of boots. Among these are moccasins, made for exploring wilderness and running. Dust is comparable to dusts composed of differing types of dirt and dirt substitutes such as concrete.

Connectivity: Boots are connected to feet as well as socks. The socks that boots tend to be connected to depend on what the boots are used for. Generally these include tall, thick socks to buffer any pressure from the boots and soak up moisture. Dust is connected to its origins as well as everything it touches.

Disturbability: Boots may disturb what it steps on, which is a potential way to accumulate dust. It can also disturb things by being pushed with lethal force. This connects to satisfiability in what the steel toe could be used for. Dust disturbs things by adding layers to surfaces, making their past known.

Reorderability: Boots can be reordered and reorganised to have new soles, steel toes, laces, colouring, etc. Dust can be reordered by being mixed with other dust.

Substitutability: Boots can be substituted by other shoes and boots. Moccasins are among a common boot substitute. Dust is substituted by other dust as well as things of a similar consistency, such as flour, baking soda, soot.

Satisfiability: Boots can be satisfied by being used on feet as well as used on rough surfaces. Mud and rock are among these rough surfaces that non-boots are not generally manufactured to withstand for extended periods of time. Dust is satisfied by being annoying…ok fine, it’s satisfied by accumulating into large quantities as well as spreading out.

….discolouration on pointer and middle fingers (left hand) as well as around the nails. [redefined: light stains on two fingers and their nails].

Divisibility: Fingers are divisible into bones and joints as well as skin. Skin is easily stained. Stains are divisible into the components of whatever it is.

Comparability: Fingers are comparable to medium to high precision tools and claw like utensils. Stains are comparable to other stains. There are organic stains (such as food), inorganic stains (such as marks from burning plastics), and a mix of organic and inorganic stains (such as stains left from using cigarette’s, which are generally found on the pointer and middle finger of one’s dominant hand).

Connectivity: Fingers are connected to the palm of the hand and to rings and other things the fingers interact with. Stains are connected to it’s components as well as what they stain.

Disturbability: Fingers can be disturbed by being stopped, prevented, or crushed. Stains can be disturbed by being cleaned away or prevented.

Reorderability: Fingers are reordered into spatial and time spectrums. A finger has organisable spatial parts as well as stages through time (e.g., child to adult fingers, smooth to rough fingers, clean to dirty fingers). Stains are organised into stages based on production, varying size, and eventual destruction.

Substitutability: Fingers can be substituted by medium to high precision tools as well as other fingers (such as someone else’s fingers or surgically placed fingers). Stains can be substituted by other stains.

Satisfiability: Fingers are satisfied by being used as tools. Stains are satisfied by the definition of a stain and their longevity.

Subject B

Attire; casual floral patterned knee high dress, jean jacket without noticeable rips or tears.

Divisibility: Dresses are divisible into patterned fabric as well as the floss thread. Jean jackets are divisible into denim and floss thread.

Comparability: Dresses are comparable to other dresses as well as casual outfits in general. They can be compared on the basis of colour, pattern, material, costs, and specific style. Jean jackets can be compared  similarly within their respective group of attire.

Connectivity: Dresses are connected to what they go on (such as people or manikins). Jean jackets are connected to similar things as dresses.

Disturbability: Dresses are disturbed by rips or stains. Jean jackets are disturbed by similar things to dresses.

Reorderability: Dresses are organised into stages of production, wear, and recycle or waste. Jean jackets are organised into similar stages.

Substitutability: Dresses can be substituted with other dresses or other outfits completely. Jean jackets can be substituted by other jackets, sweaters, or cardigans.

Satisfiability: Dresses are satisfied by being worn. Jean jackets are satisfied on similar basis.

Leans back when playing with earring.

Divisibility: Leaning is divisible into the energy necessary to perform the action as well as stages it is composed of. Playing with an earring is divisible into the psychological needs to contact an acute tactile surface, the body language provided by such a demonstration, and the earring itself.

Comparability: Leaning is comparable to other body stances. In this case it’s comparable to other forms of sitting. Playing with an earring is comparable to other forms 

Connectivity: Leaning is connected to breathing with the diaphragm as well as posture. Playing with an earring is connected to tugging the ear and all physical, language, and psychological observations associated with it.

Disturbability: Leaning is disturbed by physical pain or an outside force stopping said lean (such as movement from other seats), language cues that shift leaning into something else, and psychological needs that guide leaning in various directions and arrest it completely. Playing with an earring is disturbed by similar physical, language, and psychological factors as well as physical factors associated with the earring itself such as a malfunctioning or broken earring.

Reorderability: Leaning is reordered by its various stages, which include the physical, language, and psychological forces that provide a tendency to lean, the process of leaning and the pains and reliefs associated with it, and the eventual arrest of the lean. Playing with an earring is broken into similar stages based on similar factors since it is also an action.

Substitutability: Leaning can be substituted with laying, positing one’s self upright, or leaning in other directions. Playing with an earring can be substituted with other tactile actions, language cues, and psychological need fulfilments as well as differing earrings.

Satisfiability: Leaning is satisfied by itself, the act of leaning. Leaning may satisfy other needs such as cues and pain relief. Playing with an earring is satisfied by itself and may satisfy the earring based on the materials composing it.

Conclusion

A simple observation on dusty boots or a tendency to play with jewelry can yield so much information previously hidden. This new data was not somehow magically pulled out of thin air. It took effort and thought to look below the surface. Now that we have new information, next week we’ll take that per se deep data and make deductions previously unfathomed with the information available. Don’t forget to do your homework! No, we’re not going to punish you if you don’t do it, but doesn’t that make it a little more enticing…a little data processing practice with no repercussions. Have fun analysing! -M.C.

Here at Looking Glass we want you to have as much information for building a potent mental prowess of observation and deduction. It’s important to us that you receive a quality experience. So, if you have questions or concerns, you can send them to us on our blog at the Ask Us Anything page.

In our intro series, we gave you a basic outline of the three aspects of building a profile of person. These three aspects make up the whole of deduction. For the next few posts, we’ll be focusing on building a full profile of a person. The goal of this series is to help you get past the plateau you hit after you get raw data. “He’s right handed!…Yeah that’s about it”. We’ll take you through getting raw data, extrapolating that data, and then drawing deeper conclusions. In this post, we’ll set a scene and collect raw data to work with in the next posts.

A critical point of deduction will be covered in this series, the idea of cause and effect. In this post, we’ll practice observing the effects.

Observing a Person

When observing a person, one should start with the shoes. They often yield the most information about a person for a few simple reasons. People take them literally everywhere, they collect data in that time, traces of what that person has done while wearing them. Also, what someone has done recently can be narrowed depending on what kind they’re wearing (an obvious example being, you aren’t going to wear dress shoes on a hike). Take note of color, style, and size.

Work your way up from there. Look at the shins, knees, what kind of pants they’re wearing, or any visible blemishes (bruises, cuts, scrapes, etc.) Look for any rips, tears, stains, or lack thereof, on the pants. 

Work your way up to the shirt, look for similar things, rips, stains, color, type of shirt, style, coat or no coat.

Then look at the hands, which yield a similar amount of information as the shoes. People interact with the world through their hands, and marks will be left. Look at the palms, back of the hand, fingertips, knuckles, nails, and wrists for any blemishes on the skin, texture, and small details. Also take note of what hand they seem to use more often than the other.

Then observe the face, shaving habits (are they clean shaven or have they not shaved in awhile? Do they have a beard?) Take note of blemishes, jewelry (necklaces, any type of piercing, glasses, etc), or anything else that catches your eye. Take note of makeup as well as any facial grooming such as plucked eyebrows.

All the while, take note of their body language. Are there any gestures they keep repeating? (Rubbing their face, eyes, temples, wiping their hands on their pants, etc.) Are their legs crossed? Arms crossed? Take note of their body positions. Observe the face, look for the microexpressions that were covered in the previous series.

It is important that your observations aren’t mixed with opinions. For example, don’t describe something as “messy”, rather, describe what makes it messy (ie, many objects scattered around) Strive to make your observations as objective as possible, formed by qualitative and quantitative statements.

Dinner for Two

In this post, we’ll observe two people on a date at a local restaurant.

You go out to dinner one night with a few friends when you observe two people across the room in a booth, clearly on a date. There’s one male, one female, whom you estimate are in their mid to late twenties.

Subject A

You decide to focus on the male first. He wears dusty, but otherwise clean, tan work boots, heavy duty, steel toed. His clean, untorn pair of blue jeans cover the top of the boots. You see the outline of a wallet in his right pocket, but no keys in that pocket. He’s dressed in a simple grey v neck T-shirt. His hair is cut short and is clean shaven, no nicks. He keeps shifting in his seat. From this distance, you can see he continues to wipe his palms under the table, and he’s smiling and laughing. Occasionally, he rubs his nose. Later, when he became more engrossed with the conversation, he leaned forward, arms on the table. Under the table, his leg bounces up and down. When his hands are above the table, you can tell they’re rough in texture. His pointer and middle finger knuckles on both hands look to be split, partially healed. He’s muscular and well toned. You observe he is also tanned, with discoloration on his left pointer and middle finger, as well as around the nails. He ordered a beer to drink, which sits on his left.  You estimate he’s about 1.8 meters tall (6 feet).

Subject B

The female is wearing a pair of simple black flats and legs are shaved. The shoes look to be well worn, yet in good condition. Her legs are crossed, right over left, under the table. She’s wearing a casual, floral patterned, knee high dress and jean jacket without any noticeable rips or tears. Her shoulder length hair has been recently curled. Her nails are well groomed, manicured, and painted red. You notice ink stains on the pinky side of her hand. Occasionally, she leans back in her seat and plays with her black stud earring on her right ear. She’s wearing subtle eyeliner and mascara.You notice a blemish across the bridge of her nose. She has a small black handbag on the inside of the booth. Later on, she ordered a mixed drink and continues to stir it with the straw between sips, nodding while the male speaks. However, she seems to do most of the talking, which she elaborates on using simple hand gestures.  You estimate she is about 1.6 meters tall (five foot six).

Conclusion

As the first step of the whole process, observation must not be overlooked. You cannot build a building without solid foundation. Observations are the foundation on which you build your deductions. You cannot form accurate deductions without quality, unbiased observations. Michael Calladus has more information in the Master Class he’s currently working on, I highly recommend you read it.

This is the list of all posts on Looking Glass. We’ll update this every time we submit a new post and reblog it between series. You can also find posts organised by series on the series page at l0oking-glass.tumblr.com.

Welcome to Looking Glass - x

PROFILE

PROFILE Series Graphic - x

PROFILE Part 1: Physical Profiling - x

PROFILE Part 2: Language Profiling - x

PROFILE Part 3: Psychological Profiling - x

CAUSE & EFFECT

In the previous week you read an introduction on how to study an individual's use of language and micro-expressions to understand what they really think. In this part you will get introduced to profiling an individual's psychology in order to find out their motivations and primal instinct. There are a few things to consider in order to frame our minds for psychological profiling. This is not going to be a compilation of undeniable truths about the human psyche. This article will not tell you how to manipulate your friends (nor does this article condone manipulation). It will, however, give you the information to accurately predict decisions of and understand more deeply the minds of others. Nothing here is a copy and paste diagnosis (nor is anything ever). Psychological profiling takes effort and time to understand the individual at hand. That’s my caveat, now onto the good stuff.

Psychological profiling involves an understanding in 3 areas of the mind: Personality Patterns & Disorders, Mental Functioning, and Symptom Patterns (which we will not be discussing here).

PERSONALITY PATTERNS & DISORDERS

Personality refers to what one is rather than what one has. And what one is made up of 2 angles of observing: Patterns and Disorders. Technically both are the same thing, just different ways of viewing. 

Personality Patterns

Personality patterns refer to temperaments and typing systems. There are a ton of personality systems and quizzes that would group you in any number of ways. Each one has its strengths and weaknesses, and each one works in slightly differing capacities. Let’s take a look at the top 3 personality systems:

Meyers Briggs Type Indicator: Types individuals based on semi-binary statuses within 4 spectrums having to do with world view and data processing.

Extroverted vs Introverted - (energy source) High extroversion is often perceived as attention-seeking, and domineering. Low extroversion causes a reserved, reflective personality, which can be perceived as aloof or self-absorbed.

Intuition vs Sensing - (information management) Reflects the degree of intellectual curiosity, creativity and a preference for novelty and variety a person has.

Thinking vs Feeling - (decision making) Tendency to make decisions based on analytical data vs moral data.

Judging  vs Perceiving - (planning structure) Tendency to be organised and dependable, show self-discipline, act dutifully, aim for achievement, and prefer planned rather than spontaneous behaviour.

OCEAN (aka the Big 5): Types individuals based on high, medium, and low statuses within 5 behavioural spectrums.

Openness to experience - (inventive/curious vs. consistent/cautious) Openness reflects the degree of intellectual curiosity, creativity and a preference for novelty and variety a person has.

Conscientiousness - (efficient/organised vs. easy-going/careless)  Tendency to be organised and dependable, show self-discipline, act dutifully, aim for achievement, and prefer planned rather than spontaneous behaviour.

Extroversion - (outgoing/energetic vs. solitary/reserved)  High extroversion is often perceived as attention-seeking, and domineering. Low extroversion causes a reserved, reflective personality, which can be perceived as aloof or self-absorbed.

Agreeableness - (friendly/compassionate vs. challenging/detached)  Tendency to be compassionate and cooperative rather than suspicious and antagonistic towards others. It is also a measure of one's trusting and helpful nature, and whether a person is generally well-tempered or not.

Neuroticism - (sensitive/nervous vs. secure/confident) The tendency to experience unpleasant emotions easily, such as anger, anxiety, depression, and vulnerability. Neuroticism also refers to the degree of emotional stability and impulse control and is sometimes referred to by its low pole, "emotional stability".

Enneagram Type: Types individuals based on healthy and unhealthy behavioural loops originating in basic desire/fear within a world view.

Type 1: Reformer - (The world is an imperfect place. I work toward improvement )  Basic Desire: to be right; Basic Fear: of being condemned. 

Type 2: Helper - (People depend on my help. I am needed) Basic Desire: to be loved; Basic Fear: of being unloved

Type 3: Motivator - (The world values a champion. Avoid failure at all costs.) Basic Desire: to be admire ; Basic Fear: of being rejected

Type 4: Romantic - (Something's missing. Others have it. I'm different from them because I don't) Basic Desire: to understand self ; Basic Fear: of being defective

Type 5: Thinker - (The world is invasive and confusing. I need privacy to think) Basic Desire: to understand the world; Basic Fear: of being overwhelmed by the world

Type 6: Sceptic - (The world is a threatening place. I need to look to authority, but I question it.)  Basic Desire: to be secure; Basic Fear: of being abandoned

Type 7: Enthusiast - (The world is full of opportunity and options. I look forward to the future.) Basic Desire: to be happy; Basic Fear: of being deprived

Type 8: Leader - (The world is an unjust place. I am strong and I defend the innocent.)  Basic Desire: to be self-reliant; Basic Fear: of submitting to others

Type 9: Peace Maker - (My efforts won't matter to the world. It's best to keep the peace.) Basic Desire: to find union and peace; Basic Fear: of separation

Personality Disorders

Personality disorders have an unfortunate association tied to the overall concept. Yes, high degree and severe personality disorders are potentially harmful and may destroy countless relationships and/or form equally unhealthy coping mechanisms; however, not all occurrences of personality disorders are high degree or severe. In fact, what if I told you that these so called “disorders” help us function in sane and healthy capacities. A disorder is just a way of articulating natural albeit somewhat unhealthy tendencies. All personality disorders are derived from a basic emotional need that hasn’t been met, most commonly love and compassion. So you could call a high-functioning individual, who has slight tendencies of Schizoid Personality Disorder as having a Schizoid type personality. It’s a natural grouping of personality clusters within various range and adequacy of functioning.

Cluster A personality disorders

Cluster A personality disorders are characterised by odd, eccentric thinking or behaviour. They include paranoid personality disorder, schizoid personality disorder and schizotypal personality disorder.

Paranoid personality disorder

Pervasive distrust and suspicion of others and their motives

Unjustified belief that others are trying to harm or deceive you

Unjustified suspicion of the loyalty or trustworthiness of others

Hesitancy to confide in others due to unreasonable fear that others will use the information against you

Perception of innocent remarks or nonthreatening situations as personal insults or attacks

Angry or hostile reaction to perceived slights or insults

Tendency to hold grudges

Unjustified, recurrent suspicion that spouse or sexual partner is unfaithful

Schizoid personality disorder

Lack of interest in social or personal relationships, preferring to be alone

Limited range of emotional expression

Inability to take pleasure in most activities

Inability to pick up normal social cues

Appearance of being cold or indifferent to others

Little or no interest in having sex with another person

Schizotypal personality disorder

Peculiar dress, thinking, beliefs, speech or behavior

Odd perceptual experiences, such as hearing a voice whisper your name

Flat emotions or inappropriate emotional responses

Social anxiety and a lack of or discomfort with close relationships

Indifferent, inappropriate or suspicious response to others

"Magical thinking" — believing you can influence people and events with your thoughts

Belief that certain casual incidents or events have hidden messages meant only for you

Cluster B personality disorders

Cluster B personality disorders are characterized by dramatic, overly emotional or unpredictable thinking or behavior. They include antisocial personality disorder, borderline personality disorder, histrionic personality disorder and narcissistic personality disorder.

Antisocial personality disorder

Disregard for others' needs or feelings

Persistent lying, stealing, using aliases, conning others

Recurring problems with the law

Repeated violation of the rights of others

Aggressive, often violent behavior

Disregard for the safety of self or others

Impulsive behavior

Consistently irresponsible

Lack of remorse for behavior

Borderline personality disorder

Impulsive and risky behavior, such as having unsafe sex, gambling or binge eating

Unstable or fragile self-image

Unstable and intense relationships

Up and down moods, often as a reaction to interpersonal stress

Suicidal behavior or threats of self-injury

Intense fear of being alone or abandoned

Ongoing feelings of emptiness

Frequent, intense displays of anger

Stress-related paranoia that comes and goes

Histrionic personality disorder

Constantly seeking attention

Excessively emotional, dramatic or sexually provocative to gain attention

Speaks dramatically with strong opinions, but few facts or details to back them up

Easily influenced by others

Shallow, rapidly changing emotions

Excessive concern with physical appearance

Thinks relationships with others are closer than they really are

Narcissistic personality disorder

Belief that you're special and more important than others

Fantasies about power, success and attractiveness

Failure to recognize others' needs and feelings

Exaggeration of achievements or talents

Expectation of constant praise and admiration

Arrogance

Unreasonable expectations of favors and advantages, often taking advantage of others

Envy of others or belief that others envy you

Cluster C personality disorders

Cluster C personality disorders are characterised by anxious, fearful thinking or behaviour. They include avoidant personality disorder, dependent personality disorder and obsessive-compulsive personality disorder.

Avoidant personality disorder

Too sensitive to criticism or rejection

Feeling inadequate, inferior or unattractive

Avoidance of work activities that require interpersonal contact

Socially inhibited, timid and isolated, avoiding new activities or meeting strangers

Extreme shyness in social situations and personal relationships

Fear of disapproval, embarrassment or ridicule

Dependent personality disorder

Excessive dependence on others and feeling the need to be taken care of

Submissive or clingy behavior toward others

Fear of having to provide self-care or fend for yourself if left alone

Lack of self-confidence, requiring excessive advice and reassurance from others to make even small decisions

Difficulty starting or doing projects on your own due to lack of self-confidence

Difficulty disagreeing with others, fearing disapproval

Tolerance of poor or abusive treatment, even when other options are available

Urgent need to start a new relationship when a close one has ended

*Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder

Preoccupation with details, orderliness and rules

Extreme perfectionism, resulting in dysfunction and distress when perfection is not achieved, such as feeling unable to finish a project because you don't meet your own strict standards

Desire to be in control of people, tasks and situations, and inability to delegate tasks

Neglect of friends and enjoyable activities because of excessive commitment to work or a project

Inability to discard broken or worthless objects

Rigid and stubborn

Inflexible about morality, ethics or values

Tight, miserly control over budgeting and spending money

*Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder is not the same as obsessive-compulsive disorder, a type of anxiety disorder.

MENTAL FUNCTIONING

The following are the various aspects of the mental functioning of the human mind. Two terms to help you get through:

Affect is a concept used in psychology to describe the experience of feeling or emotion. Affect mediates an organism's interaction with stimuli. The word also refers sometimes to affect display, which is "a facial, vocal, or gestural behaviour that serves as an indicator of affect”.

Somatic refers to Somatic theory which is a theory of human social behaviour based loosely on the somatic marker hypothesis of António Damásio, which proposes a mechanism by which emotional processes can guide (or bias) behaviour, particularly decision-making.

Capacity for Regulation, Attention, Learning

Underlines fundamental processes that enable human beings to attend to and learn from their experiences.

Consider constitutional and maturational contributions, including:

Auditory processing and language

Visual-spatial processing

Motor planning and sequencing

Sensory modulation

and related capacities for:

Executive functioning

Memory (working, declarative, and non-declarative)

Attention

Overall intelligence

Processing affective and social cues

Illustrative Descriptions of the Range and Adequacy of Functioning

Focused, organised, and able to learn most of the time, even under stress.

Focused, organised, calm, and able to learn except when over- or understimulated (e.g., noisy, active, or very dull setting); challenged to use a vulnerable skill (e.g., a person with weak fine motor skills is asked to write rapidly); or ill, anxious, or under stress.

Only when very interested, motivated, or captivated can attend, be calm, and learn for short periods and to limited degree (i.e., has problems with language, motor, or visual-spacial processing).

Attention is fleeting (a few seconds here or there) and/or is very active, agitated, or mostly self-absorbed, and/or lethargic or passive. Learning capacity is severely limited due to multiple “processing” difficulties.

Capacity for Relationships and Intimacy

Including depth, range, and consistency.

Illustrative Descriptions of the Range and Adequacy of Functioning

Deep, emotionally rich capacity for intimacy, caring, and empathy, even when feelings are strong or under stress in a variety of expectable contexts.

Intimacy, caring, and empathy are present but disrupted by strong emotions and wishes such as anger or separation anxiety (e.g., person withdraws or acts out).

Superficial and need-oriented, lacking intimacy and empathy.

Indifferent to others or aloof and withdrawn.

Quality of Internal Experience (Level of Self-Regard)

Attempts to capture an individuals level of confidence and self-regard that characterises an individual’s relationship to others and the larger world.

Illustrative Descriptions of the Range and Adequacy of Functioning

Sense of well-being, vitality, and realistic self-esteem. Present even when under stress.

Sense of well-being, vitality, and realistic self-esteem. Disrupted by strong emotions or stress, but with eventual recovery of feelings of well-being.

Feelings of depletion, emptiness, and incompleteness, along with self-involvement unless experiences are nearly “perfect”. Self-esteem is vulnerable.

Depletion, emptiness, incompleteness and self-involvement dominate.

Affective Experience, Expression, & Communication

Individuals ability to express the full range of pre-representational and representational patterns of affects.

Note: The following descriptions combine the individual’s capacity to experience, comprehend, and express affects. Some individuals are relatively stronger or weaker in either affect comprehension or affective expression. Similarly, individuals differ in the way they express or comprehend affects through gestures, such as facial expressions or voice tone, as well as with words. These unique patterns should be captured in the narrative characterising the individual.

Illustrative Descriptions of the Range and Adequacy of Functioning 

Most of the time uses  wide range of subtle emotions and wishes in a purposeful manner, even under stress. Reads and responds to most emotional signals flexibly and accurately even when under stress (e.g., comprehends safety vs. danger, approval vs. disapproval, acceptance vs. rejection, respect vs. humiliation, partial anger, etc.).

Often purposeful and organised, but not with a full range of emotional expressions (e.g., seeks out others for closeness and warmth with appropriate glances, body posture, and the like, but becomes chaotic, fragmented, or aimless when very angry). Often accurately reads and responds to a range of emotional signals, except in certain circumstances involving selected emotions and wishes, very strong emotions and wishes, or stress.

Some need-oriented, purposeful islands of behaviour and emotional expressions. No cohesive larger integrated emotional patterns. In selected relationships can read basic intentions of others (such as acceptance or rejection), but unable to read subtle cues (e.g., respect, pride, or partial anger).

Mostly aimless, fragmented, unpurposeful emotional expressions (e.g., no purposeful grins, smiles, or reaching out with body posture for warmth or closeness). Distorts the intentions of others (e.g., misreads cues and therefore feels suspicious, mistreated, unloved, angry, etc.).

Defensive Patterns & Capacities

Highlights the way the individual attempts to cope with and alter wishes, affect, and other experiences, and the degree to which he or she distorts experience in the process.

Illustrative Descriptions of the Range and Adequacy of Functioning

Demonstrates an optimal capacity to experience a broad range of thoughts, affects, and relationships and handles stresses with minimal use of defences that suppress or alter feelings and ideas. Tends to use defences and coping strategies that support flexibility and healthy emotional functioning, including sublimations, altruism, humour, etc.

Makes use of defences to keep potentially threatening ideas, feelings, memories, wishes, or fears out of awareness, without significant cant distortion of experiences. May use defences, such as intellectualisation and rationalisation, and, to a limited degree repression, reaction formation, and displacement.

Makes extensive use of defences that distort experience and/or limit the experience of relationships in order to deal with internal and external stressors and to keep feelings and thoughts out of awareness. Uses defences such as disavowal, denial, projection, splitting, and acting out.

Demonstrates a generalised failure of defensive regulation leading to a pronounced break with reality through the use of delusional projection and psychotic distortion.

Capacity to Form Internal Representations

Concerns the individual’s capacity to symbolise affectively meaningful experience (i.e., to organise experience in a mental, rather than somatic or behavioural form). This capacity to represent or mentalise enables the individual to use ideas to experience, describe, and express internal life.

Illustrative Descriptions of the Range and Adequacy of Functioning

Uses internal representations to experience a sense of self and others and to express the full range of emotions, wishes. Able to use internal representations to regulate impulses and behaviour.

Uses internal representations to experience a sense of self and others and to express a range of emotions, wishes, except when experiencing selected conflicts or difficult emotions and wishes. Able to use internal representations to inhibit impulses.

Uses representations or ideas in a concrete way to convey desire for action or to get basic needs met. Does not elaborate on a feeling in its own right (e.g., “I want to hit but can’t because someone is watching” rather than “I feel mad”). Often puts wishes and feelings into action (i.e., impulsive behaviour) or into somatic states (”my stomach hurts”).

Unable to use internal representations to experience a self and others or to elaborate wishes and feelings (e.g., acts out or demands excessive physical closeness when needy).

Self-Observing Capacity

Concerns the individual’s ability to observe his or her own internal life.

Illustrative Descriptions of the Range and Adequacy of Functioning

Can reflect on (i.e., observe and experience at the same time) a full range of own and others’ feelings or experiences (including subtle variations in feelings). Can reflect both in the present and with respect to a longer-term view of self, values, and goals. Can reflect on multiple relationships between feelings and experiences, across the full range of age-expected experiences in the context of new challenges.

Can reflect on feelings or experiences of self and others both in the present and with reference to a longer-term view of a sense of self, values, and goals for some age-expected experiences, but not others. Cannot be reflective in this way when feelings are strong.

Can reflect on moment-to-moment experiences, but not with reference to a longer-term sense of self and experiences, values, and goals.

Unable to reflect genuinely on feelings or experiences, even in the present. Self-awareness consists often of polarised feeling states or simple basic feelings without an appreciation of subtle variations in feelings. Self-awareness is lacking, and there may be a tendency toward fragmentation.

Capacity for Differentiation & Integration

Individuals ability to build logical bridges between internal representations (i.e., to separate fantasy from reality and to construct connections between internal representations of wishes, affects, self and object relationships, and the past, present, and future).

Illustrative Descriptions of the Range and Adequacy of Functioning

Is able to connect internal experiences of self and non-self; self and others; fantasy and reality; past, present, and future; and a range of wishes, emotions, and feeling states. Can separate and comprehend differences in these patterns of internal experiences.

Is able to differentiate and integrate experience, but with some constriction. Strong emotions, wishes, and selected specific emotions, wishes, or stresses can lead to the temporary fragmentation or polarisation (all-or-nothing extremes) of internal experience.

The capacities for differentiation and integration are limited to just a few emotional realms (e.g., very superficial relationships). Challenges outside these limited areas often lead to the fragmentation or polarisation (all-or-nothing extremes) of internal experience.

Internal experience is fragmented most of the time. For example, unable to make emotionally meaningful differentiation of experiences of self and non-self, past and present, or different wishes and feelings.

Capacity to Construct or Use Internal Standards and Ideals (Sense of Morality)

An outgrowth of other mental functions and an integration of a number of them, the capacity to formulate internal values and ideals reflects a consideration of one’s self in the context of current and future experiences.

Illustrative Descriptions of the Range and Adequacy of Functioning

Internal standards are flexible and integrated with a realistic sense of one’s capacities and social contexts. They provide opportunities for meaningful striving and feelings of self-esteem. Feelings of guilt are used as a signal for reappraising one’s behaviour.

Internal standards and ideals tend to be rigid. They are not sufficiently sensitive to one’s own capacities and social contexts. Feelings of guilt are experienced more as self-criticism than as a signal for reappraising one’s behaviour.

Internal standards, ideals, and sense of morality are based on harsh, punitive expectations. Feelings of guilt are denied and associated with acting out, depression, or both.

Internal standards, ideals, and sense of  morality are, for the most part, absent.

PUTTING TOGETHER THE PROFILE

All of this information is great! How do you use it. Using it involves processing it into an easy to understand format. I like to call this format the profile. A simple page of information organised and laid out for quick understanding. It varies, however, often looks like this:

Name: Last, M. First Age: x Sex: x Personality Patterns: MBTI/OCEAN/Enneagram P Axis - Personality Disorders: Low/Medium/High functioning within clusters M Axis - Mental Functioning: Basic description of mental capacities S Axis - Subjective Experience: Basic descriptions of individual’s experiences Healthy Loops: x, x, x.... Unhealthy Loops: x, x, x.... Notes: All excess information that has yet to become categorisable

CONCLUSION

Humans are complex, beautiful, messy creatures. It’s important to revisit my caveat at the beginning of this post. I’ll sum it up: Nothing here is a copy and paste diagnosis (nor is anything ever). Psychological profiling takes effort and time to understand the individual at hand. Use this knowledge with care.

- M.C.

Using language to deduce from a person is an underrated part in the profiling of a person, and therefore isn’t often covered, at least not taken as seriously as it should be. However, like appearance, people choose what to say and how to say it. Any choice made by a person tells you something about them, if you know what to look for, and how to look for it. Observe what you hear from a person and reason from the data. Here are some things to look for.

IMPORTANT: This is a general guide to what you can find with some of the specific areas covered, and should be treated as such; there will never be a definite answer to everything to emerge from here, as every situation is different, as well as the people involved, so context must always be taken to consideration.

Verbal Communication

Accent:

Familiarize yourself with the variety of accents in your country and your language, as well as how letters are pronounced in different languages. This can tell you if they’re native or foreign, and if foreign, where they might be from. (Common slang specific to a certain region of a country is also an indicator, but that’s up next). Accents can be learned, but getting to a native like fluency with it does take time. A good way to really learn and memorize the differences between similar accents is to practice them yourself. Make an effort to familiarize yourself with the slang of various regions of your country and other countries that speak the same languages that you do.

British Accents: x

American Accents: x

Vernacular:

The way that people phrase things, the slang, and the colloquials they use can clue you into how educated they are, as well as where they’re from. How they speak also holds strong indicators to certain personality types (ie serious, playful, shy, etc. That’s psychology, and will be covered in the final post of this introduction series) It is important to note that these are guidelines, and must be added into the context of the situation you’re in.  

Furthermore, what someone says is obviously pretty important. Take note of what someone says as well as how they phrase it; people tell you more than they realize. For example, do they reference goals or ambitions? How do they say them? Whimsical? Determined? Hopeful? Maybe even sad? All of this gives you clues to things such as personality, interests, hobbies, and current living situation, to name a few. For example, is a casual acquaintance open and honest about more personal topics? Are they like that with everyone, or just you? If it’s with everyone, that points to a trusting, open, sociable person. If you observe that it’s just you they share with, it’s probable that they trust you, and feel safe sharing with you.

Context, and pay attention to not only what they’re saying, but also what it implies. This can be applicable to deduction as a whole, as well.

Tone:

Tone points to immediate mood and feelings, toward both the situation they’re in and the people involved, perhaps something else that’s on their mind. Watch for changes in tone and think about what that change indicates. Watch for shakiness in the voice, which implies an increasing level of some kind of emotion - be it sadness, anger, or fear. Most people are already sensitive to tone of voice, so this is a bit easier to pick up. Listen for variations in the person’s voice, large and small. Someone’s pitch will go up if they’re anxious or on edge (which can also be an indication of lying).

Texting:

This one can be a bit tricky because it requires setting up a baseline of some kind. People develop their own texting style. These patterns become clear - commonly used abbreviations, emojis, and even specific phrases. Deviation from these patterns can mean there’s something up - again, context is key here. For example, someone who usually says “Lol’, suddenly says “Haha”, you can assume their mood has deviated somehow, there’s something that caused the change in pattern. They may be angry, upset, or uncomfortable with the topic at hand. Context will tell you which.

Variations in spelling tells you where someone may be from. For example, America and the UK spell some words in a slightly different manner. Here are some examples with common differences:

UK - USA

Colour - Color

Centre - Center

Recognise - Recognize

Analyse - Analyze

Fuelled - Fueled

Licence - License

Defence - Defense

Additional Tips and Notes:

It’s also worthwhile to look into the basic sentence structure of different languages. I’ve found that it gives me a better clue as to what other languages a person may speak. Additionally, what mistakes will be common to someone who may not be entirely fluent. Absolute perfect grammar, or unnecessarily formal sentence structure (i.e. lack of contractions, “I am” vs “I’m” or “Cannot” vs “Can’t”, or lack of common grammar mistakes of native speakers, example “I am well” instead of “I’m good”) can sometimes point to a second language. It is important to remember that most of these are potential indicators. Meaning, alone, you can’t make a strong deduction with them. But when they start to pile up, then you can be a bit more certain in the accuracy of your deduction. Like clues, only one can’t really prove much. It may point in a general direction, but it needs more supporting evidence to create a probable explanation.

Nonverbal Communication

Quick Note on Body Language

Body language is an important part of nonverbal communication. However, as this is an introductory post, and there is way too much information to explain, it won’t be covered in this post.

Microexpressions:

Microexpressions are an interesting and worthwhile study. Microexpressions, put simply, are small, millisecond long facial tells that point to certain emotions. One can’t learn to control them, hence why they can be so useful. Learn not only how to read them, but interpret them, figure out why they’re having that particular emotion. There are seven universal micro expressions that all humans share, regardless of where they live and the culture they grew up in. (This research was pioneered by Dr. Paul Ekman. A popular TV series was made surrounding the topic of nonverbal body language and Dr. Ekman’s research called “Lie to Me”, which is quite interesting and a fun way to gain exposure to the topic.)  The seven, along with their key traits are:

Surprise

Fear

Sadness

Anger

Happiness

Contempt

Disgust

All of these combined creates a fairly decent language profile of a person. One more time -

All of this is context driven, and you must always keep this in mind. These are clues and tips, and you must take context into account. Sweating doesn’t always mean someone is lying, and lying doesn’t always have to do with what they’re currently talking about. This will become easier to do with practice.

Welcome to the first part of the Profiling series. Deduction itself can be broken into many subsections and branches, but mainly all of those are classified into 3 main parts: Physical, Language, and Psychological. These contain sub-topics within deduction ranging from body language to logic reasoning to personality typing. But to understand these, and to be able to use them accurately and to their full potential, you have to understand how they are classified and what they are primarily used for. In each part of this series we will introduce you to a new area of profiling.  There’s so much to talk about that we could never cover it in this introductory post, which is why this series is meant to frame your mind for much larger, future series that will go in depth on these topics. Here in Part 1 we'll be looking at the seemingly most popular: Physical Profiling.

WHAT IS PHYSICAL PROFILING?

Physical Profiling is a form of reading ones character, behaviour, and lifestyle from physical aspects such as hands, clothing, or belongings. This is often seen in Sherlock Holmes novels/representations, and similar characters. For Sherlock fans it’s known as regular deduction which we see in a typical Sherlock episode. Take “A Study in Pink” for example; in this episode Sherlock shows 2 extremely important deductions, not just to the episode as a story, but as an introduction to the character, and what we want to focus on, his way of thinking. So the question is, what does he actually do? We see him come to conclusions, and we see his reasoning, but what we don’t see is what actually goes on in his head. Does he pick the objects he picks at random? Does he just scan everything? How does he know what to look for? How does he know what something means? We see the trail he makes from point A to point B, but we don’t see how he makes this trail. So let’s shift away from the show and look at the actual method a bit.

What we have to understand is how physical profiling is composed. When we interact with our surroundings we leave residue behind, and the surroundings leave it on us, everything is connected to everything and when there’s a change caused by you or by anything else there will be a consequence to said change. Physical profiling is the method we use to identify said changes in the physical appearance or a person and recognize how they came to be. If I eat something, anything, that food is gonna leave a mark on me, I’m going to have crumbs on my shirt, or maybe a stain on my pants, my hands are going to get greasy. In deduction we learn to trace back those clues to their source, and from there build a scene of what happened in someone’s life. And we’re using the physical aspects of a person, the simple things we can see every day like their clothes or stains, or their shoes, or any accessories, to look for these clues and trace them back to find the information we want. Each time you look at a person you’ll come up with new questions. You know those questions are getting you somewhere when your answers start to overlap.

THINGS TO OBSERVE

So off the bat the first thing that we’re likely to do is observe, which is not the same as looking. Observation involves asking questions about what we take in with our senses. Let’s start from bottom and move to the top, beginning with shoes.

Shoes

Now these may seem very common but they can actually tell you a lot, they are in fact one of the most telling pieces of clothing people wear, think about it, how often do you wash them? How often do you check for scratches on the rubber? Or change the laces? Are they comfortable? Are they for work? What do you use them for? How often? Where do you go? Shoes are the one thing you will carry with you no matter where you go.

Shins & Knees

Let’s move on to shins and knees. This can tell you how someones been sitting, what they’ve been doing while sitting, how enjoyable their time was as they sat. If there’s some kind of residue it can tell you what else they’ve been doing and where they’ve been. Dust? Paint? Mud? Clean? Different color? Bleach stained? These things are worthy of noting.

Shirt & Pants

Next is shirt and pants. Is it stained, if so with what? If it’s food then what kind of food? Is it easy to spill? Look at the angle of the stain. Is it torn? Maybe they work with it a lot, or do sports with it. Material is also quite telling. Hot, cold, wet, rainy, dry, dusty, or hill covered places clothing specific to that environment. Comfort is also a factor - uncomfortable clothes lead to an uncomfortable situation or place - maybe a job or job interview they’re worried about.

Accessories

It’s important to keep in mind any accessories they have on them. This says a lot about what they value and prioritize.

Do they have a phone? In the pocket they can tell you handedness. Is it an expensive one? Does it have alarms? Does it have a case? What’s the background picture? Does it have scratches?

Do they have a purse?

Do they use pockets, if so which ones?

Rings? Do they correlate to social status and/or marriage?

Are they wearing earphones?

Important job?

How much exercise?

Owns a car or uses public transport?

Good health?

Watch? Is it analog? Is it expensive?

CONCLUSION

Welcome to Looking Glass. This is the place where you can learn the skills and tools of Sherlock Holmes, Apollo Robbins, Patrick Jane, Call Lightman, Paul Ekman, and Dr. Gregory House. My name is Michael Calladus, I’m one of three authors on this blog. I specialise in psychological profiling and memory palace techniques as well as general deduction. I solve cases as a consulting detective on my blog here: x. Every few weeks we will start a new series of posts designed to give you new lenses to observe the world through. These lenses are equally useful, and can be combined to create powerful tools for deduction.

The goal of this blog is to create a compilation of the knowledge and experience we have from years studying this science, and converting it into lessons for you guys. I am MT, i’m the co-owner of the blog, my areas of expertise are Logic Reasoning and Personality, i have a blog of my own which also focuses on deduction, as well as case solving, don’t be shy, you can find me here: x. These series will consist of everything you need to know about basically anything related to deduction that we can provide, as well as how to apply it and work with it, and even how to personalize these techniques to your individual way of learning and your goals. All of this to aid anyone, no matter their skill level

I’m Mary, the final member of this project, and you can find my new blog here. I’m a jack of all trades when it comes to the subject, but my strengths lie in psychological profiling. We’ll work together to create the content that we think will be most useful to deductionists of all skill levels, so feel free to ask questions.