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Should we listen to our emotions?

The human brain is not the result of the improvement toward rationality of a single brain function, but rather the addition of new functions alongside existing ones.

Our genetic heritage: the cognitive-affective system

This heritage is shared with the great apes, probably all mammals, and many other species.

This cognitive-affective system ₍₁₎ is governed by the dichotomy of the pursuit of pleasure (or reward) - avoidance of suffering (or punishment).

It is composed of four elements:

When childhood goes well, and the parents understand and provide satisfactory answers to their child’s problems, the child associates positive emotions with a series of circumstances, especially those in which they need outside help. As a result, attachment and altruism emerge, for when they meet other people in difficulty, these positive emotions resurface and allow them to find pleasure in action.

Conversely, children who have experienced aggression tend to reproduce it, but this time taking the role of the aggressor. They thus progressively transform the content of their associated memories.

Finally, note that major traumatic events can be suppressed by memory, so that the victim is not aware of their presence.

Our cultural heritage: problem-solving

In contrast to the cognitive-affective system, which is shared with many animal species, only humans are able to practice 'Problem-solving' which requires complex language. It is an eminently cultural function that requires years of learning in favorable conditions. Therefore, the majority of today’s adults have more or less serious shortcomings in their ability to practice problem-solving, and still mainly function on the basis of their cognitive-affective system. In particular, rhetoric is a verbal confrontation based on the cognitive-affective system.

Let us recall here that problem-solving is what we consider the optimal cognitive function accessible to humans, as well as the solution to contain thesocial violence resulting from social ambition. Conversely, as long as humans function mainly on the basis of the cognitive-affective system, they live in the social violence produced by social ambition. See the paragraph 'Alliance Strategies' in the question 'What are the consequences of social ambition? The concept of generalized nepotism.', to understand well that the violence in a group does not result from the fact that the leader rules by terror and not by benevolence, but results from the fact that the leader does not practice problem-solving and thus leaves the field open to the game of alliances.

Overall cognitive functioning of humans

The effective cognitive functioning of humans is the superposition of the cognitive-affective system and reason that supervises it... possibly.

Our cognitive-affective system produces conclusions instantly, which can take into account a large number of factual and emotional parameters, engraved in our memory. Hence its potentially high performance, but not reliable when emotions have not been processed. Hence the interest in having the solution controlled by reason.

In particular, even when a human tries to practice problem-solving, their emotions linked to memory can on the one hand harm their motivation, and on the other hand disturb their rationality, just like their beliefs.In extreme cases, which are by no means rare, a person gives precedence to emotion, draws a conclusion that explains to their eyes their emotion, and then may build a biased reasoning to justify to others their conclusion. By giving precedence to emotion over facts, the person acts in a way that is overall contrary to the common good; supervision has not taken place.

The psychotherapies largely aim to reduce the imperative negative emotions associated with certain situations. This can be done in two ways:By becoming aware of our tendency to generalize. For example, a certain number of failures can lead to a generalization in the form of an absolute such as 'I will never succeed' or even 'I am useless', that is to say, an omission of taking into account the particularities of the circumstances in which these failures occurred.By managing the flow of our emotions instead of simply enduring it or trying to stop it, and especially by becoming aware of the nature of emotions (the concept of defusion from ACT).Finally, by obtaining different results in similar circumstances, we can gradually modify the emotion linked to these situations.

Somaticization

Somaticization corresponds to the attempt by reason not to take into account the negative emotions linked to memory which arise and come to contradict the line of action we have chosen following a rational reasoning.From then on, these emotions will tend to be expressed at the physical level.

Course of action

We all have to carry out foundational work to identify the situations that generate negative emotions in us produced by memory, in order on the one hand to avoid the generalization which can lead us to lose confidence in ourselves, and on the other hand to avoid these emotions taking precedence over objective reasoning at the level of interactions with others and the decisions we take.

This work can be seen as a significant part of the second recommendation mentioned in the question 'How to succeed in life?': The rational dimension - Krishnamurti - living in reality.This can be done by personal work, or with the help of a therapist.It is also the basis of a Buddhist spiritual approach, of which meditation is a key element.

Populism or the exploitation of collective emotions

Populism is the technique of gaining power based on the exploitation of emotions linked to collective beliefs or difficulties encountered by large layers of the population, such as the fear of social decline.Technically, one delivers a speech that easily wins the agreement of reason, through deceptive, often simplistic, 'evidences', while actually targeting emotions. As a result, populism generates an adherence, a fervor, an impulse, and an action capacity, much higher than that produced by a coherent rational discourse.

Quotations

Nietzsche: 'To consider distress in general as an obstacle, as something to be suppressed, is [the supreme absurdity], a disastrous attitude in its consequences [...] almost as stupid as wanting to eliminate bad weather.'

Nietzsche again: 'If you refuse to let your own suffering weigh on you for even an hour and constantly try to guard against all possible distress long in advance, if you consider suffering and displeasure as bad, detestable, to be eliminated, and as a flaw in existence, then it is clear that [you have ...] the religion of comfort. You know little of human happiness, you [...] who prize comfort so much, because happiness and unhappiness are brothers, and even twins who grow together, or, as is the case with you, stay small together.'

Go deeper

See the question 'Ending the abusive use of psychotropics and psychotherapies' qui explique la dangereuse tendance actuelle à substituer la psychothérapie à la lutte contre l'injustice, et présente deux méthodes thérapeutiques sérieuses. En particulier, la psychothérapie ACT spécifie comment écouter ses émotions, et répond à la citation de Nietzsche.

Regarding scientific validation, different variants of dual models of cognition have been proposed and tested. In the model proposed by Keith E. Stanovich, Type 1 corresponds to what we call here the cognitive-affective system, and Type 2 corresponds to what we call here reason.The following article provides an overview of attempts to validate these models:

↣ Dual-Process Theories of Higher Cognition: Advancing the Debate

(1) We use the same terminology 'cognitive-affective system' as the CAPS system described in the article 'A cognitive-affective system theory of personality: reconceptualizing situations, dispositions, dynamics, and invariance in personality structure' by Walter Mischel and Yuichi Shoda (1995), but we do not attribute the same content to this term.We have reused this term to emphasize that the innate cognitive system of humans is governed by emotions.