New Ideas in Psychology

[ Feelings ] [ Model of Emotion ] [ Influence of Value ]

[ Compound Emotions ] [ Unconscious Ideas ]

Emotions are partly derived from feelings.

To explain how this derivation occurs I use a model of consciousness that is a traditional one : consciousness has three parts or modes, those of will, mind, and feeling.

Past variations on this model substituted action for will, and emotion or sensibility for feelings. In this model I distinguish between consciousness and mind. Consciousness is the totality of the person, whilst mind is only one feature of it. However, my model has an innovative feature : the three modes are separate, but they interlock by the production of desires and emotions.

In this model, mind has two aspects, intelligence and intellect. Intelligence links to will and to feeling, and intellect is the source of abstraction. The former expresses the activity of the mind, whilst the latter is an indication of the degree of maturity of the mind. [¹]

Mind is the key to consciousness. Mind, in fact, is the ‘cement ’ that keeps all aspects of consciousness together.

Now the mind helps to produce desires and emotions. In this aspect of mind we use ideas or concepts.

I give definitions of desire and emotion that brings out their reliance on concepts.

Will, or will power, is a pure striving, an undirected effort. When will is united with mind, it generates desire. Desire is the activity of will directed into a mental concept. The concept governs the use of will. The concept directs the will.

For example, will plus the concept ‘social status’ gives rise to the desire to achieve social status. Will plus the concept ‘fame’ gives rise to the desire for fame. Without the presence of desire it is very difficult to sustain the use of will ; if a person tries to renounce desire then he / she is quite likely to become lethargic.

When feeling is united with mind, it generates emotion. Emotion is the activity of feeling directed into a mental concept. The feeling energises a conceptual response to a stimulus. Feelings are primarily either pleasant or unpleasant ; rarely are they neutral. Hence there are two possible conceptual responses to any stimulus, which in turn leads to two possible emotional responses.

For example, feeling plus the concept ‘domination’ gives rise to the emotions of anger and fear : anger arises because the pleasant feeling makes domination of other people acceptable to me, whereas the unpleasant feeling makes fear arise when I become subject to domination by other people.

For another example : feeling plus the concept ‘identity’ gives rise to the emotions of love and hate. Here the pleasant feeling makes a social identity acceptable to me, since I am the same as everyone else : identity produces love. The unpleasant feeling makes me reject a social identity – I prefer to be different and have an individual identity : difference produces hate.

Unconscious ideas
The mental concept that is associated with an emotion actually creates the boundaries of that emotion. If the mental concept changes, the emotion does not change ; instead, it fades away and a different emotion arises, one that fits the current mental concept. The mental concepts of emotions are not normally a part of our awareness. Emotions are not unique to any particular individual, so the mental concepts that underlie them come from the unconscious mind. Since the mental concepts are unconscious they are extremely difficult to identify. The mental concept is normally unconscious, so I call it an unconscious concept or an unconscious idea.

At this point I need to clarify my usage of two important terms.

I use the term ‘subconscious mind’ for what is personal to the individual, and the term ‘unconscious mind’ for what is general to humanity. [²]

I illustrate my usage of these terms in Appendix 1.

An emotion is not unique to any particular individual, so the mental concept that underlies it comes from the unconscious mind.

Now an unconscious idea has two values : it is good or it is bad. The good value generates the pleasant feeling, the bad value the unpleasant feeling. This division leads to two choices. One choice gives rise to one emotion, the other choice to its complement.

In general, the definition of an emotion is that it is an unconscious idea powered by either a pleasant or an unpleasant feeling.

[ E1 [ ] E2 ] [ E3 ] . [ Table of Contents ] . [ A1 ] [ A2 ] [ A3 ] [ A4 ] [ A5 ]

[ Glossary ] [ Links ] [ References 1 & 2. ] [ Appendix 1 & 2. ]

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Copyright © 2002 Ian Heath
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The copyright is mine, and this book is free to use. It can be reproduced anywhere, so long as the source is acknowledged.

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