Dr David McGrath

Dr David McGrath

Dr David McGrath

Spine Physician

MB BS (Hons) FAFOM, RACP, FAFMM
Master of Pain Medicine


From earlier articles
1. Emotions aid survival
2. Emotions determine success IN specific environments
3. Environments determine the success OF specific emotions
4. Emotions are auto-regulated by disturbances

Is there an emotion, which supports historical disturbances ?
You will recall, emotions lower the threshold for a certain class of disturbances, as a useful anticipation. This is possible because of the regularity of our social and general environment.
We could speculate, that an emotion might arise which could preferentialy support historical disturbances and resist contemporay disturbances. In other words, the disturbances would be internally generated, although they had their genesis in external events.These disturbances could be woven into the contemporary stream to create an even more effective action pattern and greater success.
This emotion does indeed exist for humans. We could call it "Reflectiveness".
Reflectiveness supports disturbances from both the social and general environment.
1. Thoughts, words and gestures are disturbances from social interaction
2. Imaging and other sensory disturbances are disturbances from general environment.

While in a reflective mood, these historical patterns are re-lived in the present. As the mood changes, we stop reflecting to receive contemporary disturbances.
Reflectiveness is the emotion responsible for our rich inner life,when the external world no longer engages us.
As an observation, reflective disturbances lack the intensity and richness of the original externally generated version. Imagining a "car" is not the same as directly observing a real car. Thinking in language lacks the auditory tones of listening to a real person.
This emotional capacity, is pehaps our greatest structural achievement.
We can live a rich disturbance life, even during quiet times.



©Copyright 2007 Dr David McGrath. All rights reserved