> Yes, but don't forget in saying this you have recognised that this is
> also our chief weapon against each other.
> Is it not rather ironic that we can call 'sociopath' someone who
> cannot 'fake it' emotionally to get his own way?
Ironically, most sociopaths are actually excellent at faking emotion. They
just can't fake it forever, because their contrition doesn't ring true after
the third act of arson.
> Yes - but you can - using the power of your own mind - suppress your
> emotions which is a kind of 'faking it' ie
I'm not certain I agree. I think you can suppress awareness of your own
emotions more readily than you can suppress the emotions themselves. It's
true that people can learn to control their emotions to an extent, but it's
not a large extent. Therapies that aim to control emotion cognitively
aren't always successful. They work best in situations where there's a
cognitive basis reinforcing the undesirable emotion. Example: depression
triggered by ruminating over old traumatic experiences.
> acting in a sense contrary to how you feel. Takes a bit of practice
> but anybody can act.
This is true, but this is mostly frontal lobe territory...suppressing
dominant responses with an interest in long-term benefit. It's good that we
have that...people without it are as bad as sociopaths. Frontal-temporal
dementias can turn a normal, modest person into a mindlessly cussing,
child-molesting exhibitionist; not because it evokes new emotion, but
because it prevents the victim from being able to inhibit any of their
desires. In those of us with a functioning frontal lobe, the emotions are
still there under the surface and still direct action when inhibition is not
logically called for.
> I'm suggesting that this was the 'adaptive decision-making heuristic'
> - that there is great survival value in knowing how to 'fake it' and
> taking all the rest of what you say into account, this is maybe the
> reason emotionality or the economy of emotionalism in human
> civilisation got going...
I agree. Some of the toxic memes today stem from the evolutionary
development of "us vs. other" that was birthed back when we lived in small,
tribal groups. At that time, prejudice and discrimination were adaptive,
because protection of one's own tribe was of great importance when grappling
over limited resources with other groups. Nowadays, these emotions and
approaches have a negative effect. Prejudice and discrimination are most
commonly directed at members of one's own group (other citizens of the same
city or country). It's very difficult to modify that kind of behavior
because it stems from a natural and largely innate source.
Anna
--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group.
To post to this group, send email to everything-list.domain.name.hidden
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to everything-list+unsubscribe.domain.name.hidden
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
Received on Thu Oct 23 2008 - 23:44:00 PDT