Noodling about emotions

[womzilla]

A friend of mine made a private LJ post about emotions, which asked, in effect, whether one can choose one's emotions or whether they are uncontrollable.

Here's what I said in response. As I say, it's noodling rather than a Manifesto.

"Emotions" are brain responses to outside stimuli. These responses shape both one's thoughts and one's physical reactions--fear makes the heart race, lust makes the genitals flush. And so forth.

It's clear to me that emotions are, at least in part, habitual responses. Just as you can train yourself to different habits, you can train yourself to have different emotional responses to situations.

So, to that degree, you can choose your emotions.

However, one does not necessarily "choose" one's emotional responses. Many emotional responses start from a biological brain-track--fear of reptiles seems hard-wired into the human brain to a degree completely disproportionate to the actual dangers of reptiles. And habits are often forced upon you by your previous life. Not in the reincarnation sense, but in the sense that the decisions you make and experiences you undergo earlier in life will shape your current life in ways that your current self does not control.

So your immediate emotional response right now is probably not yours to choose, although what you do with that emotional response right now generally is. Not universally, I would say--there are some emotional responses which are so strong, or so ingrained, that they can overcome any attempt to redirect them in the here-and-now. To the degree that psychotherapy works, it is about the long process of changing one's habitual emotional responses.

But considering that there are people walking around right now who actively crave to be beaten with whips until they bleed, I'd say it's pretty clear that the mind can do amazing things in reframing emotional responses to stimuli.

Thus, you can have it both ways, and some others on top.

Comments

[mattapp.livejournal.com]

But where does Carrot Top fit in with all this?

Sorry. My sick sense of humor demanded that I type that. :-)

[armoire-man.livejournal.com]

I think the very definition of an "emotion" is a feeling that isn't chooseable in some very deep way. Emotions are spontaneous. Over time, you can learn to deflect them, suppress them, ignore them, fake them or flaunt them, but they remain with you until you deal with them honestly and openly. If you don't, they stick with you under the surface and you end up using enormous amounts of energy keeping them there, whether you know it or not.

As an emotional kid raised by emotionally autistic parents, I've spent a decade of time and effort re-learning how to feel what's already there, instead of letting it warp my life subconsciously. It's tricky, it takes endless repetition, and frankly, I wish I'd learned it all intuitively when I was, say, five.