Dr David McGrath
Spine Physician
MB BS (Hons) FAFOM, RACP, FAFMMMaster 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