Emotions Co-Rule!

Unfeeling

by Richard C. Raynard, Ph.D.
Licensed Clinical Psychologist

We are incapable of making a decision and taking action on it without our emotions to energize and guide us. No? Listen to this:

Damazio, a leading neuroscientist,  (1994) reported his subject, "Elliot", had a non-malignant tumor removed from the prefrontal cortex area of his brain. In the process, some white cortical matter was moved from his right prefrontal cortex, the area that connects the upper, reasoning part of the brain with the lower emotional centers. That's all.

 

Damazio noticed that Elliot was unusually "calm and restrained" and showed no range of emotion. When Elliot returned to his work as a successful manager, he could not carry out the simplest tasks. He was able to communicate well, recall his work, form plans, but not carry out a single step, even to make a phone call. He got involved in repetitious tasks and readings. He couldn't do a task when expected and was fired. He continued to make bad decisions, lost all his money, remarried and redivorced, and drifted, impoverished.

Elliot performed at the superior level of intelligence on the IQ test. In several other tests, all his abilities were at least normal or above: immediate memory, language comprehension, facial perception, attention, working memory and even ethical, financial and social problem-solving. At the end of one session, Elliot commented "And after all this, I still wouldn't know what to do".

Damazio explains: neurologically, reason and emotion intersect in the prefrontal cortex and amygdala. These areas affect movement, emotion and attention. Damage causes "a virtual suspension of the animation of action and of thought process". He explains further that the modern, higher functions of the brain evolved out of the lower, emotional circuits, so that goodness and badness of situations is signaled to the higher centers. Those who lack the feeling of an emotion lack the energy and direction of the emotion. The feeling of an emotions combines an appraisal of the situation, a disposition to act in a certain way, and energy to do it.

Damazio is not alone; he cites four other sources.  Panksepp (2012) also documents the integration of emotion and thought in neurological terms and concludes that emotion is central to human behavior and psychiatric disorders. Scientists are slow to recognize that curiosity is a basic emotion, as well as a function of our cortex.

The mood of chronic boredom, lasting for months or longer, is seen as an absence of feeling and emotion. Those so lost in boredom also have an almost total incapacity to make decisions and act.

There you have it. What are your thoughts on the centrality of emotions to our lives?

About Dr. Raynard
Dr. Richard Raynard is a licensed clinical psychologist with 35 years experience resolving a broad range of emotional problems. As a cognitive-behavioral therapist who has specialized in anxiety and phobic disorders since 1980, he has spent the last 35 years fulfilling his life-long desire to explore and define the true purpose of emotions and how people can easily use emotions to create meaning and satisfaction in their lives. Dr. Raynard's series of books on emotions can be found on Amazon.com. His other books include Don't Panic, and Anxiety & Panic Medications.