emotions

1
emotions feelings
what are they? why do we have them? what can they
teach us? how best can we work with them?
2
some sources of inspiration

• Damasio A. Descartes error emotion, reason and
  the human brain. London Papermac, 1996
• Gendlin E. Focusing-oriented psychotherapy a
  manual of the experiential method. New York
  Guilford, 1996
• Kennedy-Moore E Watson J. Expressing emotion
  myths, realities, therapeutic strategies. New
  York Guilford, 1999
• Damasio A. The feeling of what happens body,
  emotion and the making of consciousness. London
  Vintage, 2000
• Lepore S. Smyth J. The writing cure how
  expressive writing promotes health and emotional
  well-being. Washington American Psychological
  Association, 2002
• Greenberg L. Emotion-focused therapy coaching
  clients to work through their feelings.
  Washington APA, 2002

3
definitions of emotion

• oed disturbance of mind mental sensation
  or state instinctive feeling
  as opposed to reason. from
  French émouvoirto excite mouvoirto move
• encyclopedia brittanica a distinct feeling or
  quality of consciousness, such as joy or sadness,
  that reflects the personal significance of an
  emotion-arousing event ...
• columbia encyclopedia term commonly and
  loosely used to denote individual, subjective
  feelings which dictate moods. In psychology,
  emotion is considered a response to stimuli that
  involves characteristic physiological
  changessuch as increase in pulse rate, rise in
  body temperature, greater or less activity of
  certain glands, change in rate of breathing

4
what are emotions feelings?
adapted from Kennedy- Moore E Watson J.
Expressing emotion myths, realities, and
therapeutic strategies. New York Guilford
Press, 1999.
physiological reactions
reflection
external observ-able responses
internal feelings
5
types of emotion feeling
the following classification system is from
Damasio A. The feeling of what happens.
London Vintage, 2000

• six primary/universal emotions
• happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise,
  disgust
• secondary/social emotions
• e.g. pride, jealousy, guilt, shame,
  embarrassment
• background emotions
• e.g. excitement, energy/fatigue,
  wellness/sickness, harmony/discord,
  relaxation/tension, stability/instability,
  balance/imbalance
• moods, drives motivations
• moods are made up of modulated sustained
  primary, secondary or background emotions
  drives motivations express themselves and are
  detectable through background emotions

6
what do emotions do?

• prepare the body-mind for appropriate
  action
• heart rate, blood flow, hormones,
  also changes in memory, thinking, etc
• provide information on how situation is assessed
• noting interpreting feelings, which may
  be appropriate to energize current action or may
  be inappropriate need updating
• send out signals to others
• posture, voice tone, facial expression,
  speed of movement send signals to others about
  self and assessment of environment