[lit-ideas] Re: Tune in and turn off
- From: "Andy Amago" <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 30 Apr 2006 17:54:46 -0400
Each emotion supplies the mind/body wish different information. Fear tells us
there's danger, to fight or flee. Anger tells us someone is hurting us.
Sadness tells us we've lost something. Anxiety tells us there's something not
right but we don't know what that something is. As a society we're taught to
ignore emotions or to use only "approved" emotions. Generally speaking, men
are not allowed to feel fear or sadness, but anger is acceptable. Therefore
the emphasis on "courage" and macho raging as a "manly." Women are, generally
speaking, not allowed to feel anger, but fear is acceptable. Hence the
preponderance of damsels in distress. So a man feels fear and converts it to
anger. A woman feels anger and converts it to fear. Both sexes convert
sadness and/or anger to lust (hence the popularity of porn). Likewise panic
attacks are ways of expressing submerged thoughts and feelings and emotions, as
are obsessions, and arguably phobias. They're all simply distracti
ons from what one doesn't want to look at. Fear of flying, for example, might
be the fear of loss of control. And on and on. I agree with you that fear is
the big one, it's way underrated, while anger is twisted beyond recognition,
along with cravings for sex and food.
Regarding what does one feel like for dinner, an answer might be, I don't know,
what does one look like for dinner? Serving up a plate of anger or joy? That
question as to what one feels like for dinner almost speaks to the origins of
eating disorders, where people eat their anger or other emotions, confuse food
with love, etc.. Feeling numb kind of parallels the "feeling no pain" of being
drunk, a primary reason people drink, to numb out feelings.
For Omar, talking about feelings is like talking about hunger. Does talking
about hunger water down hunger? There is a school of thought that says one
can control one's feelings by addressing the underlying unconscious thought
process. But emotions are beyond logic or reason. They aren't right, they
aren't wrong, they simply are and they need to be felt. An emotion is just
energy. Blocked energy causes trouble. The trick is letting the emotion flow
such that there are no regrets afterwards.
----- Original Message -----
From:
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: 4/29/2006 8:46:25 AM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Tune in and turn off
It seems to me that anger, sadness and anxiety are all secondary emotions
piggy-backing on the primary emotion of fear.
Julie Krueger
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