Posts Tagged ‘nose stuffed’
Only six emotions? What about just three?
Posted by: adonis49 on: August 1, 2013
Only six emotions? Anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness and surprise…
These are Big abstract emotions that require plenty of examples and qualifying conditions to make sense of.
Actually, our basic emotions are banal: They are intrinsically linked to our feeling of lack of capacity in our body and mental functions, functions we take for granted.
Do you think the feeling of having our ear wax-shut, seeing double, nose stuffed, feeling hungry, thirsty, back pain, finger smashed, elbow knocked on the edge of a door, leg injury… are all interpreted the same way by the brain?
What kinds of emotions are generated when you are unable to smell anything or taste anything?
What kinds of emotions do you feel when you realize that your memories are failing you?
All these emotions are not the same because of the interrelations among 4 factors:
1. The brain does not interpret the same pain and frustration for all injuries and handicapping problems
2. The duration of the handicap such as permanent, short-term or medium term plays a critical role on the wide gamut of emotions we try to untangle. The effects linger and the events cannot be forgotten
3. The community in which we live exerts particular judgment on each kind of handicap
4. Our standard level of traditional life-style is affected, and the required changes are harder the higher the standard level.
Banal emotions of failure in what we used to take for granted.
Whatever other emotional terms are concocted are abstract combination of several basic banal emotions.
Is happiness an emotion? Do we really can recall how we felt when our body was sane and fully functional?
Is happiness synonymous with contentment, pleasure, joy…?
Emotions are the experience of a difference of what we took for granted and the current condition that does not match our expectation.
Is feeling satisfied represents matched expectation in habits and customs?
If only 3 basic tastes generated a complex and versatile industry as cooking, and using thousands of condiments to mix in order to satisfy 3 basic tastes, can you imagine the varieties of emotions that the interrelations of the brain, community and personal life style can generate?
Anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness and surprise? Are these the only major emotions we may experience?
Surprise? Happily surprised? sadly surprised? Angrily surprised?
Disgusted of what? the look, the taste, the smell…?
Fear of what? Death, injuries, failure, lack of money, lack of job opportunities?
Sad of what? Feeling lonely, unappreciated, cheated frequently, lack of companionship…?
How about we reduce the emotions to three?
Fear, anger and contentment?
The feeling of happiness, surprise, exalted instances and the Void are transient feelings: The next moment and the brain recaptures the 3 essential emotions that are lasing or permanent among mankind life.
For every emotion the computer will generate a range of sub-emotions related to the key one, kind of level grade of intensity and confusion…
I was inspired to develop on emotions after reading Seth Godin post “Millions of words and only six emotions”
Seth Godin posted on July 27, 2013
The intellectual part of the human mind can spin delightful or frightening stories, can compare features and benefits, can create narratives that compel us to take action.
But all of these words are merely costumes for the six emotions built deep in our primordial soup:
Anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness and surprise.
Being angry at a driver who cuts you off in traffic is chemically similar to being angry to a relative who cuts you out of his will.
We tell ourselves different stories (the traffic story will probably not last nearly as long in the echoes of our consciousness as the bitterness of the bequest story, for example), but still, there are only six buttons being pressed.
Knowing that there are only a few keys on the keyboard doesn’t make it easier to write a pop hit or a great novel, but it’s a start.
In the case of someone with an idea to spread or a product to sell, knowing that you’ve only got six buttons might help focus your energy.
Note: Godin has been generous of providing only 6 key functions to push. Do think that reducing the emotions to three that the task is easier to handle? Try it.
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