key hopes for this evening
think about what emotions are
introduce a model of ‘positive emotions’
glance at consciousness very briefly consider
implications for therapy
personal background
to help people who are in pain or distress (especially when effective help is not readily available elsewhere) particularly for those with psychological difficulties
to try to provide & encourage a whole person approach that uses what’s best in conventional, complementary, and self-help methods of health care
work through a small charity whose aims are:
for more details & a downloadable copy of this talk go to the ‘goodknowledge’ section of www.goodmedicine.org.uk click on ‘lecturesand leaflets’ and look under ‘emotional expression’ in ‘past lectures’
some sources of inspiration Damasio A. Descartes’ error: emotion, reason and
the human brain. London: Papermac, 1996 Gendlin E. Focusing-oriented psychotherapy: a
manual of the experiential method. New York: Guilford, 1996
Kennedy-Moore E & Watson J. Expressing emotion: myths, realities, & therapeutic strategies. New York: Guilford, 1999
Damasio A. The feeling of what happens: body, emotion and the making of consciousness. London: Vintage, 2000
Lepore S. & Smyth J. The writing cure: how expressive writing promotes health and emotional well-being. Washington: American Psychological Association, 2002
Greenberg L. Emotion-focused therapy: coaching clients to work through their feelings. Washington: APA, 2002
key hopes for this evening
think about what emotions are what are they? what do they do? why do we have
them?
theoretical maps are crucial
“there is nothing so practical as a good
theory”
kurt lewin:‘founder’ of american
social psychology
clients may well rate new understanding as one of the most important aspects of therapyButler G et al Anxiety management: developing effective strategies Behav Res Ther 1987;25:517-22
“it is the theory which decides what we can
observe”
albert einstein:in debate
with heisenberg
what are emotions & feelings?
internal feelings
physiological reactions
reflection
external observ-able responses
adapted from: Kennedy-
Moore E & Watson J. Expressing emotion: myths, realities, and
therapeutic strategies.
New York: Guilford Press, 1999.
types of emotion & feeling
six primary/universal emotions happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise, disgust secondary/social emotions e.g. pride, jealousy, guilt, shame, embarrassment background emotions
e.g. excitement, energy/fatigue, wellness/sickness, harmony/discord, relaxation/tension, stability/instability, balance/imbalance
moods, drives & motivationsmoods are made up of modulated & sustained primary, secondary or background emotions; drives & motivations express themselves and are detectable through background emotions
the following classification system is from: Damasio A. The feeling of what happens. London:
Vintage, 2000
what do emotions do?
prepare the body-mind for “appropriate” action
heart rate, blood flow, hormones, & also changes in memory, thinking, etc
provide information on how situation is assessed
noting & interpreting the feelings
send out signals to others posture, voice tone, facial expression,
speed of movement send signals to others about self and assessment of environment
what do emotions do?prepare an individual for ”appropriate” action, emotions produce major changes in the body:
1. the “body loop” changes the landscape of the body – heart, lungs, blood distribution, muscles, viscera, etc – via both chemical messages in the blood stream and electrochemical messages in nerve pathways.
2. the “as if body loop” changes the representation of the body directly in sensory body maps in the brain. It is “as if” the body had been changed although the changes haven’t actually occurred in the body itself. Damasio A. The feeling of what happens. London: Vintage, 2000
what do emotions do?
prepare an individual for ”appropriate” action, emotions produce major changes in the brain:
1. induction of specific behaviours such as those aimed at generating bonding, nurturing, exploring & playing.
2. changes in how signals from the body are processed such as selective filtering, inhibition, enhancement, & alteration of quality of pleasantness/unpleasantness.
3. changes in cognitive processing involving shifts in rate of production (slow to fast) and quality of focus (sharp to vague) of auditory and visual images
theoretical maps are crucial
it may be more helpful to think of humans as having many ‘minds’ rather than
just one
john teasdale:
cambridge psychologist
these different mind-body states are linked to different emotions, different
body landscapes, different ways of thinking, different access to memories,
and different behaviours
‘body-mind as house’ model
it’s easiest to recognize the different ‘rooms’ by noticing the different characteristic emotions they are linked to
all human beings have much the same set of emotional mind-body ‘rooms’ in our ‘houses’
all the rooms are there because, in the appropriate situation, being in the room promotes survival
when we’re in one room, it’s hard to remember there are any other rooms in the house – feelings/thoughts/memories
problems arise when we get stuck in inappropriate rooms
humans are like houses with different rooms which represent our different mind-body
states
key hopes for this evening
think about what emotions are what are they?what do they do? why do we have
them?
why do we have emotions?
“in the wilderness in which the human racedeveloped its current genetic characteristics,
individuals who had the capacity to respond todangerous or otherwise significant circumstances
with an adequate set of emotions, and actedaccordingly, had a better chance to survive, to
have children, and to raise them than indiv-iduals who were deficient in that respect”
Gut, E. Productive & unproductive depression. London: Routledge, 1989
emotions can help us survive & thrive:
examples of emotional functions
anxiety can serve an individual by making them hypervigilant - ready to run or freezeand it also alerts others to possible danger
anger can help an individual act rapidly to defend themselves when their territory is invaded & it serves to frighten others away
depression can occur when our movementtowards a major goal is blocked - it causes us to pause, re-evaluate and change direction
‘body-mind as radar’ model
the body-mind is like a radar & rapid response system constantly assessing whether the
outer & inner environments are favourable or unfavourable
emotions (like a constant wash of changing colours) are the ‘readings’ from this radar & rapid
response system
the emotional radar system is ‘quick & dirty’ triggering rapid responses that may be accurate,
adaptive & possibly life-saving or inaccurate & unhelpful
key hopes for this evening
think about what emotions are
introduce a model of ‘positive emotions’
glance at consciousness very briefly consider
implications for therapy
what about ‘positive’ emotions?
Fredrickson, B. L. What good are positive emotions? Review of General Psychology 1998;2:300-319.
Fredrickson, B.L. et al. Cultivating positive emotions to optimize health and wellbeing. Prevention & Treatment 2000 (a web-based APA journal available at http://journals.apa.org/prevention/volume3/toc-mar07-00.html
Fredrickson, B. L. The role of positive emotions in positive psychology. The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. Am Psychol 2001;56:218-26.
Fredrickson, B. L. & Joiner, T. Positive emotions trigger upward spirals toward emotional well-being. Psychol Sci 2002;13:172-5.
Fredrickson, B.L. The value of positive emotions. American Sci 2003;91:330-5.
Fredrickson, B. L. The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2004;359:1367-78.
Tugade, M. M. & Fredrickson, B. L. Resilient individuals use positive emotions to bounce back from negative emotional experiences. J Pers Soc Psychol 2004;86:320-33.
Barbara Fredrickson’s ‘broaden-and-build’ model
what about ‘positive’ emotions?
emotions such as joy, contentment, gratitude & love
‘negative’ emotions narrow the thought-action repertoire to solve problems of
immediate survival ‘positive’ emotions broaden the thought-
action repertoire to build resources for future survival
feeling good promotes flexible, integrative thinking; relationship building; exploration; &
skill development
consciousness as evolutionary step
Antonio Damasio The feeling of what happens: body, emotion and the making of consciousness London:
Vintage, 2000
evolution of consciousness – major survival advantagegoing beyond non-conscious reflexes & conditioning
changes in the body’s internal
environment are monitored
by basic brain stem structures
making up the ‘proto-self’
a major leap forward occurs when an organism develops the capacity to
recognize that responses are ‘mine’
stimulus
consciousness
response
core consciousness is the ‘feeling of what happens’
when we see, hear or touch
three levels of being
extended consciousness & autobiographical self
core consciousness & present time core self
unconscious biological state & the proto self
key hopes for this evening
think about what emotions are
introduce a model of ‘positive emotions’
glance at consciousness very briefly consider
implications for therapy
possible implications for therapy
clients frequently come because they are unhappy with their emotional state – emotions are at the heart of therapy.
working with the client to construct maps & models of what has been happening is often very therapeutic.
becoming clearer what a client is feeling is a crucial aspect of therapy (‘arriving’).
what one does with the feeling (‘leaving’) depends on whether or not the underlying emotion seems ‘adaptive’.
try to use ‘adaptive’ emotions – including ‘positive emotions’ – to fuel constructive action.
therapy aims to help process ‘non-adaptive’ emotions.
some of the many possible implications