This copy is for educational purposes only.
Payne, Wayne Leon
A STUDY OF EMOTION: DEVELOPING EMOTIONAL
INTELLIGENCE; SELF- INTEGRATION; RELATING TO
FEAR, PAIN AND DESIRE
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Payne, Wayne Leon
A STUDY OF EMOTION: DEVELOPING EMOTIONAL
INTELLIGENCE; SELF- INTEGRATION; RELATING TO
FEAR, PAIN AND DESIRE
Union for Experimenting Colleges/U. Without
Walls and Union Grad. Sch. PH.D. 1985
University Microfilms International 300 N.
ZeebRoad, Ann Arbor, MI48106
Copyright 1986 by Payne, Wayne Leon All
Rights Reserved
A STUDY OF EMOTION:
• DEVELOPING EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
• SELF-INTEGRATION
• RELATING TO FEAR, PAIN AND DESIRE
By
Wayne Payne
A Project Demonstrating Excellence
Submitted to the
Union Graduate School
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
For the Degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
May 1983
Union Graduate School
WAYNE LEON PAYNE All Rights Reserved
PROJECT DEMONSTRATING EXCELLENCE ABSTRACT by
Wayne Pa.yne
This Project Demonstrating Excellence
introduces the concept of emotional
intelligence, a faculty of consciousness
hereto overlooked. A rigorous theoretical and
philosophical framework is developed to throw
light on the nature and characteristics of
emotion and emotional intelligence and to
enable us to explore how one actually goes
about developing emotional intelligence--in
self and, by way of education, in others.
Evidence is presented that the mass
suppression of emotion throughout the
civilized world has stifled our growth
emotionally, leading us down a path of
emotional ignorance. Indeed, many of the
problems facing society today are the direct
result of emotional ignorance: depression,
addiction, illness, religious conflict,
violence and war. Per-haps we humans have
tried too hard to "civilize" ourselves,
trying to deny our true animal nature--our
emotional nature --along the way. Whatever
our motivation, however, we have not done
this out of any inherent evil nature. We've
done this because we have had the wrong idea
altogether about the nature of emotion and
the important function it serves in our
lives.
This work is intended to be a prototype of a
guidebook on developing emotional
intelligence. It offers guidance in three
ways: (1) by raising important issues and
questions about emotion; (2) by providing a
language and framework to enable us to
examine and talk about the issues and
questions raised; and (3)by providing
concepts, methods and tools for developing
emotional intelligence.
Since emotional intelligence involves
relating creatively to fear, pain and desire:
these states are explored in detail and
guidance is offered on how to relate to them
in emotionally intelligent ways.
PREFACE
This is a guidebook on how to relate to
emotion; more specifically, how to relate to
emotion in ways that are creative and
fulfilling; in ways that solve problems
rather than create them; and in ways that
heal rather than debilitate and bring on
illness. I introduce the concept of emotional
intelligence and offer guidance on how to go
about developing your own emotional
intelligence; through a process I call self-
integration. Based on my own experiences and
my observations of others in their struggles
to solve emotional problems, the specific
states of fear, pain and desire appear to
present the greatest obstacles to intelligent
action for most of us. Accordingly these
states are explored in some detail and
guidance is offered on how to relate to them
in emotionally intelligent ways.
To throw light on the many facets of this
elusive phenomenon we call emotion, the
material in this hook has been drawn from a
variety of sources, including a wide range of
academic disciplines involved in the
investigation of emotion (for example,
philosophy, anthropology, psychology,,
anatomy, physiology, nutrition, medicine,
physics and theology); religion; poetry;
popular music; and personal testimonies from
individuals from many walks of life--50th lay
8.nd professional. I also draw heavily from
my own experiences with, and observations of,
emotion. I've had the opportunity to
experience and observe emotion--within myself
and within others--from a variety of vantage
points created by various roles I've filled
in my life. Socially, for ex-ample, I've
experienced and related to emotion in the
roles of child, adult, male, husband, lover,
and father; professionally, in the roles of
social worker, psychotherapist, drug-abuse
counselor, community mental health center
director, teacher and researcher.
PURPOSE
This test is designed to serve three
purposes. First, my aim is to raise important
issues and questions about how to relate to
emotion. Accordingly, ideas are presented to
stimulate you, to wake you up in certain
areas of human experience. In this regard, it
matters little whether you agree or disagree
with the positions I take on the issues
raised here. It is more important that we
face the issues together--whatever our
respective views. Some of these issues are
stressful to face and can trigger fear and
pain when you do, depending upon the beliefs
that you hold. I say this because this has
happened to me many times in the course of my
investigation into human nature over the past
18 years, as well as in the actual writing of
this book; I violently rejected some of the
ideas presented here when I first encountered
them.
I encourage you to enter into dialogue with
anyone who might be interested in these
disturbing issues. The truth will surface
wherever this is done with sincerity and
care. Thus, in accordance with this
philosophy, I offer my ideas not as proven
facts but as challenges to your own way of
viewing the world--especially the world of
humans. If, indeed, you do feel challenged by
what I say here, or find yourself looking at
aspects of emotion that you hadn't given
serious consideration before, then I will
have succeeded in my primary mission in
writing this book.
The second purpose is to provide a language
and theoretical framework within which we
can.... examine the process of developing
emotional intelligence. Emotional
intelligence has existed in all life forms, I
believe, for as long as they have existed. We
have not recognized its existence, however,
until now. As a result, nothing exists in the
literature in the area of emotional
intelligence. We are left to fall back on
ourselves to build a language and a
theoretical framework within which we can
create models to throw light on the nature of
emotion and emotional intelligence, as well
as how it can be developed--in self and in
others. To further complicate things, I have
found the paradigms of Freud and Jung to be
of extremely limited value in helping us to
understand emotion or emotional intelligence.
Indeed, I find that adherence to some of
their hypothetical constructs actually
interferes with one's ability to open up to
and grasp the fundamental nature of emotional
intelligence.
The third purpose is to provide methods and
tools to enable you to work toward developing
your own emotional intelligence. There are
limits to how much you can learn about your
emotional condition from the outside, through
the faculty of the intellect alone--just as
there are limits to what Jacques Cousteau
could have learned about the depths of the
sea had he never ventured from the seashore.
The methods used in emotional problem-solving
are, like deep-sea diving, partially
subjective and experiential in nature and
are, accordingly, impossible to convey fully
in words or symbols; they must be experienced
to be fully understood and mastered.
Furthermore, to the extent that these methods
reach into "irrational" realms of one's
existence, they can- not be explained
rationally. For these reasons, this text is
intended to be used in conjunction with
experiential learning--either in individual
or seminar settings. There is much, however,
that many readers can do on their own without
participating in seminars.
STRUCTURE AND SUBSTANCE
Part 1 raises important, basic issues about
how to relate to emotion and provides
evidence that the chronic suppression of
emotion is unhealthy for humans--individually
and socially.
CHAPTER 1: HOW TO RELATE TO EMOTION?
I raise the questions of whether it is wise
for you to acknowledge within yourself what
you are feeling; and, if acknowledged,
whether you should express what you feel.
Present-day beliefs and attitudes toward
emotion are traced to their origins 2,400
years ago. Arguments are presented supporting
both the suppression and the expression of
emotion.
CHAPTER 2: EFFECTS OF CHRONIC SUPPRESSION OF
EMOTION
Here we look at some of the problems we have
created, and continue to create, by the
chronic suppression of emotion--individually
and socially. A distinction is made between
suppression and repression. Three basic
methods are described by which humans
suppress emotion within them- selves. The
emotional, physical and intellectual effects
upon the individual are examined, as well as
the corresponding loss of self-direction. The
effects of suppression upon society are
discussed in terms of education,
psychotherapy and medicine; enforced
hypocrisy and homophobia are seen as two
extremely destructive effects.
Part 2 presents the concepts, terms and
theoretical framework needed to be able to
talk about emotion, emotional problem-
solving, and developing emotional
intelligence. Much of the material presented
in part 2 was derived by asking myself over
and over as I observed humans in their
struggles to solve emotional problems: "What
characteristics of human nature would account
for this emotional phenomenon?"
CHAPTER 3: CONFUSION REFLECTED IN OUR
LANGUAGE
I suggest that our confusion about the nature
of emotion and its role in our lives, along
with a centuries-old pattern of suppressing
the expression of emotion, have produced
languages throughout the world--both
scientific and colloquial--that are ill-
equipped to communicate about emotion. I
suggest further that we ought to eliminate
the use of the terms, "mind," "ego,"
"psyche
,""mental ,It and "psychological," on the
basis that each time we use then1 they
reinforce a distorted view of human nature
and confuse us further.
CHAPTER 4: IDEAS, BELIEFS AND PARADIGMS
The concept of paradigm provides a framework
within which we can talk about the
personality changes that accompany the
development of emotional intelligence. I
define paradigm as a system of beliefs and
suggest that when one or more of your beliefs
change, through insight, you experience a
paradigm shift that alters significantly how
you perceive, interpret and experience
reality--which, in turn, alters your
personality and changes the way you go about
trying to solve your emotional problems.
Since the process of altering beliefs is at
the core of this kind of personality change,
it becomes important--if we are to understand
this process--to examine how beliefs are
formed and released. And since a belie: is
simply an idea of what seems to be, or ought
to be, it becomes important to examine the
nature of ideas as well to learn how ideas
are formed and the role they play in one's
interpretation and experience of reality.
CHAPTER 5: REAL1TY
Since paradigm shifts involve changes in the
way you perceive, interpret and experience
reality, it becomes important to look closely
at the nature of reality and how it is
structured. In this chapter, I present a
model of reality that is based, in part, on
Taoist philosophy; in part, 011 Stoic
philosophy; and, in part, on the principles
of holographic theory. While holographic
theory has lost the momentum it had a few
years ago, it continues to be the model that
is the most compatible with all the diverse
phenomena I've observed in my study of
emotion. Indeed, it is the only one that
comes even close to offering an
interpretation of the role and function of
emotion that "works" for me. I felt an
intuitive sense of recognition of truth the
moment the theory was presented to me; it was
the "missing link" in the conceptual
framework of my theory of emotion.
It is important in the process of developing
emotional intelligence to clarify as much as
possible the subjective distinctions that
exist between physical matter, emotion,
thought and image--while, of course,
recognizing their interrelatedness and their
common source. To help facilitate these
distinctions, I have found it useful to
partition reality into four primary realms,
i.e., the physical, emotional, intellectual
and visual realms. I also partition each of
the four realms into inner and outer domains
to clarify the subjective distinctions that
exist between inner and outer phenomena.
CHAPTER 6: FACULTIES OF CONSCIOUSNESS
When you examine emotion very closely, you
realize that it is an integral, inseparable
part of consciousness itself. Thus, when you
ask questions like, "What is emotion?" or
"What function does emotion serve, if any, in
the lives of humans?" you are immediately
confronted with other questions: "What is
consciousness?" and "HOW does consciousness
work?" In this chapter, we explore some of
the basic capabilities or faculties of
consciousness that are of particular
relevance to the processes involved in
emotional problem-solving: awareness, memory,
imagination and intelligence.
CHAPTER 7: INTELLIGENCE
Intelligence is a poorly understood concept.
When one introduces the idea of emotional
intelligence, it be-comes even more vague--
although I've found that most people seem to
have an intuitive sense of what I mean by the
term. Once I defined clearly for myself what
I meant by this term, as I had come to use it
in my writing, it became apparent that this
faculty of consciousness manifested itself in
all of the four realms of existence I had
been studying (i.e., physical, emotional,
intellectual and visual). I define formally
what I mean by intelligence and show evidence
of intelligence in all four realms of
consciousness. Given the language and
framework in part. 2, part 3 presents a broad
overview of the phenomenon of emotion and the
field of study which has emerged to study it.
CHAPTER 8: DIMENSIONS AND LANGUAGE OF EMOTION
Rather than attempting to define emotion at
the outset, I have chosen in this chapter to
identify and ex- amine certain manifest
characteristics or dimensions of emotion, as
well as the language used to express and talk
about emotion.
CHAPTER 9: THE ROLE AND FUNCTION OF EMOTION
We examine the role and function of emotion,
drawing heavily from the literature to
reflect the level of confusion and
disagreement among writers in the field
present the role of emotion as being: (11
both a disorganizing, maladaptive force and
an organizing, adaptive force;
(2) a mode or form of perception that
provides you with a monitor of your total
life situation; and (3) a mover, pro- viding
you with a felt need to act (whether or not
you do SO).
CHAPTER 10: PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRELATES OF
EMOTION
This chapter provides an overview of the
complex goings-on within your body physically
when you are experiencing and/or under the
influence of emotion. I begin with the
historical development of the most
influential theories of emotion--all of which
have been expressed either in physiological
or behavioral terms. (I have chosen not to
include behavioral dimensions of emotion in
this book because this has been the primary
focus of psychology throughout the world for
the past 50 years and has been, accordingly,
covered extensively in the literature; any
serious student of emotion can find many
texts which focus primarily on its behavioral
aspects.) A brief description of the anatomy
and physiology of the primary systems
involved in the phenomenon of emotion is
offered, including: the limbic system; the
autonomic nervous system '(ANS); and the
endocrine system. In addition, we look at
some of the latest research findings on the
neurochemical aspects of emotion, as well as
the relationship between blood pressure and
the ANS.
CHAPTER 11: CRYING
In this chapter I offer a brief overview of
what we have learned about crying, weeping
and sobbing -- most of which has been
discovered only within the past five years.
There appears to be a sudden interest in
crying, a growing curiosity about its role in
our lives, and a flurry of new research aimed
at understanding it. I also offer evidence of
a possible relationship between suppressed
crying and the common cold.
CHAPTER 12: A HOLOGRAPHIC THEORY OF EMOTION
I offer a comprehensive, holographic theory
of emotion, in which emotion is conceived as
a multidimensional phenomenon, a
constellation of related events-- some of
which appear to occur sequentially, and some
of which appear to occur synchronously. I
identify three stages in the sequence of
events leading to emotion: stimulating event,
evaluation and response. The response is,
again, a multidimensional phenomenon
involving your emotional, physical,
intellectual and visual faculties of
consciousness.
Part 4 addresses the issue of how you can
actually go about learning how to relate to
emotion more fully and develop your-own
emotional intelligence--on your own, per-
haps, in the beginning, seeking help from
others along the way as you feel the need for
it.
CHAPTER 13: EMOTIONAL PROBLEM-SOLVING
In this chapter we explore the emotional
problem- solving process from the inside, in
somewhat abstract terms, introducing a new
interpretation of the problem state and how
to relate to it. I define what it means to
solve an emotional problem--in terms of a
Taoistic model of the universe in which there
is constant movement in the forms of
contraction and expansion. We look at three
modes of expanding awareness that are used in
developing emotional intelligence.
CHAPTER 14: SELF-INTEGRATION
I introduce a method of problem-solving,
which I call self-integration, that
addresses, specifically, problems resulting
from the chronic suppression of emotion.
Self-integration is a self-actualization
process precipitated by bringing together
your inner experience and outer expression
into an integral whole. Self-integration is
analyzed into the component parts of tuning
in and integrating. Integrating is further
analyzed into the processes of coming out and
letting go. These interrelated processes are
examined in detail and methods and tools to
facilitate them are introduced. I also
describe some of the more common subjective
experiences in the process of self-
integration.
CHAPTER 15: RELATING TO FEAR, PAIN AND DESIRE
An important part of developing emotional
intelligence is learning to relate to the
experiences of fear, pain and desire in
emotionally intelligent ways. While I have
written about many facets of this throughout
the text, I focus on these three specific
problem states in this chapter because of the
difficulty most of us have in knowing how to
relate to them. Using Krishnamurti's paradigm
of fear as a backdrop from which to reflect
my own, I pre-sent a model of fear in which
fear is not considered to be an undesirable
experience to be avoided in all situations;
rather, fear is seen in some situations to be
a guide to freedom and not to be resisted. I
suggest looking at your fears in terms of
whether they are based on reality or i1lusion
(self-deception). I explore ways to go about
learning which of your fears are appropriate
for your self-preservation and which are
self-limiting and self-destructive. I
describe the dynamics of the release of
repressed fear and offer guidance on letting
go of your resistance to experiencing fear. I
also describe some of the common experiences
in the process of tuning in to and
surrendering to fear--from the earliest
manifestation of your fear, through "running
the rapids" to transcending your fear.
It has become the American way of life to
pursue pleasure and eradicate pain--at any
cost. This attitude, generated by distorted
beliefs about the nature of pain and its role
in our lives, is at the core of many
emotional problems that we experience in our
everyday lives. Solving these kinds of
emotional problems necessarily involves
forming a new idea of the nature of pain and
how to relate to it.
Western medicine, in harmony with this
hedonist philosophy, has pursued a path of
developing technology aimed at relieving pain
and distress, overpowering the un-wanted
symptoms by direct force--with little or no
regard for the long-term consequences. This
emphasis has created a society of people who
are essentially ignorant about how to heal
themselves by natural means.
I present two basically contradictory systems
of medical treatment: aliopathy and
homeopathy. Using these as contrasting
backdrops, I present a model of pain in which
pain is seen to be of inestimable value in
life, serving two basic functions: that of
bodyguard, and that of healer. As an integral
part of the healing process, I offer an
hypothesis on how healing pain actually
works, that is, how it goes about the task of
engaging the body's own healing mechanisms
and processes. I introduce the idea of the
ratchet effect of healing pain, which is part
of the dynamics of releasing your repressed
pain, as well as engaging your healing
processes. I describe briefly some of the
ways your attitude toward pain--your total
relationship with pain--changes as you come
to have more experience with it and realize
first-hand its healing power.
This chapter ends with a discussion about how
to relate to the experience of desire. I
begin by looking at the role and function of
desire and identifying certain of its
characteristics. It appears that there are
three different kinds of desire. We look at
these in some detail, and I suggest ways to
relate to each of them more creatively. I
explore the relationship between desire and
will (self-control). I make a distinction
between natural will and altered will. I
argue that it is imperative that we open
to--and remain open to--our desires, or
perish.
The issue of how to relate to desire raises a
number of interesting questions, which I
discuss in some detail: How do you open
yourself to the experience of desire more
fully? And once you have awakened your
desire, how do you live with it without being
consumed by it? For example, how do you deal
with attachments, addictions and obsessions?
What do you do to transcend those desires,
such as the de- sire to smoke a cigarette,
that you determine within yourself to be
self-destructive? I respond to each of these
questions with suggestions to help you to
deal with them within yourself. Clearly, my
aim is to help you to overcome the myth that
desire is a human weakness, that it is self-
destructive to listen to what you want. I
offer tools to help you to clear out self-
destructive aspects of your desire, such as a
method of suffocating desire by selective
suppression (where appropriate) and a method
of playing the extremes of conflicting
desires.
CHAPTER 16: WHERE FROM HERE?
In view of my findings in this research with
respect to the nature of emotion and how to
relate to it, I propose that we are embarking
on THE AGE OF EMOTION, in which it is
recognized that emotion is a valid, necessary
component in the decision-making processes,
at both the individual level and the socio-
political level. I point to a number of
issues we must face if we are to move ahead
with emotional intelligence.
AUDIENCE
This book was written for two groups of
learners: those who want to learn to relate
to emotion more fully and to develop their
own emotional intelligence; and those who
want co learn to help others to do the same.
The latter are simply more advanced than the
former. Accordingly, some of the material
presented here will be beyond the background
of some readers and, in some instances,
beyond what the reader is even interested in
knowing. For example, because of the scope of
this work, it has been necessary to assume
the reader already has a grasp of certain
basic concepts in anatomy and physiology.
The paradigm I'm offering here will not be
acceptable to all readers. If you hold the
belief that it is wrong to allow the
experience and expression of emotion to flow
in everyday life, for example, you may well
feel disturbed by what I'm saying. If you
hold this belief deeply and strongly, you may
even feel resentment toward me for suggesting
that life is this way.
If, on the other hand, you feel intuitively
(if not instinctively) the need to open
yourself more to the realm of emotion--which
means opening to the reality and experience
of what's really happening in your inner
world, for better or for worse, and sharing
(expressing) that reality, with all its
fears, pains, desires and pleasures, with
others who are important to you--then what I
am saying may make sense to you; and if it
does, it may stimulate you to respond more
fully to that need.
HOW TO READ THIS BOOK
I don't expect everyone to grasp all that is
contained in these pages on the first
reading. First, emotion is, for many reasons,
a very difficult phenomenon to understand.
Second, those readers who lack exposure to
emotional expression and emotional problem-
solving may have difficulty relating to the
problem-solving methods suggested here,
Third, this text is intended to serve a wide
range of readers, from beginning to advanced
learners. By design, then, there will
necessarily be some material that will be
beyond the grasp of some readers at the
outset. I personally find this arrangement
appealing, similar to the old country school
house where beginning and advanced students
shared the same classroom. Fourth, everyone
in the field has trouble writing and talking
about emotion because of its
multidimensional, multifaceted nature. It is
not possible to present all the dimensions of
some ideas all at once, in one place in the
text. Many of the ideas inherent in this
field are so complex that they can be
developed only so far without taking
significantly large detours to present facets
of other ideas that are needed to explain the
original ideas. As a result, the reader is
often left to wonder what is meant by a new
term, or why it is even being introduced.
This can be disturbing. I've given years of
consideration to this problem and have tried
to minimize it by paying attention to the
order in which ideas are presented. Yet, I
know of no way to eliminate the problem
altogether. Indeed, it appears to be inherent
in the process of learning about emotion and
how to relate to it. In terms of holographic
theory (described in chapter 5), it could be
said that many of the ideas presented here
are holographically distributed throughout
the text and cannot be fully grasped until
the entire text has been covered.
And last, some of the ideas presented here
were very disturbing to me when I first
encountered them, such as John Lilly's
statement about the nature of beliefs, or the
ideas of freedom and movement presented by
Joel Kramer, How can I expect it to be
different with others?
There are a couple of different approaches
you can take to reading this book, depending
on what you want out of the experience and
the level of your preparedness. If you are
interested primarily in learning to relate to
emotion, and less interested in the
philosophical and theoretical framework
within which this learning takes place, then
I suggest that you read part 1 first, then go
directly to part 4--which focuses on how you
can go about developing your own emotional
intelligence. As you encounter terms you
don't understand, or that need further
clarification, you can use the Contents to
find where they are defined and discussed in
parts 2 and 3 as needed. You can then go back
and study parts 2 and 3 later, when you feel
the need for a broader understanding, or
become interested in learning how to help
others to learn to relate to emotion.
If, on the other hand, you have an interest
in the philosophical and theoretical issues
raised in parts 2 and 3, I would strongly
advise that you read the text straight
through from front to back. The material
presented in parts 2 and 3 is designed to
open you to new possibilities and prepare you
t6 understand and accept more readily the
problem-solving methods suggested in part 4.
CONTENTS
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . ii
List of Illustrations . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . xxviii
PART ONE
BACKGROUND
Chapter 1
HOW TO RELATE TO EMOTION? . . . . . . . . . .
2
The Suppression of Emotion . . . . . . . . .
. 3
The Evolution of Stoicism . . . . . . . . . 4
The Seeds of Stoicism . . . . . . . . . . 4
Zeno of Citium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
10
The Fall of Stoicism and the Rise of
Christianity . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
The Stoic Creed . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Contemporary stoicism. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..
18
Eighteenth century stoicism. .. .. .. .. ..
19
Nineteenth-Century Stoicism . . . . . . . 21
Twentieth-Century Stoicism . . . . . . . . 23
The Expression of Emotion .. .. .. .. .. ..
.. .. .. .. 27
Summary .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 31
2. EFFECTS OF CHRONIC SUPPRESSION OF EMOTION
….33
Dynamics of Suppression . . . . . . . . . . .
37
Effects on the Individual . . . . . . . . . .
43
Emotional Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . .
44
Physical Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
51
Intellectual Effects . . . . . . . . . . . .
52
Loss of Self direction . ... 53
Effects on Society . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. 54 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . 59
PART TWO CONCEPTS, TERMS AND THEORETICAL
FRAMEWORK
INTRODUCTION .................... 62
3 CONFUSION REFLECTED IN OUR LANGUAGE .....
65
Failing to Discriminate between Experiences
................ 66
Combining Two or More Ideas without Awareness
................. 67
Inconsistent Use of Terms .......... 69
Partitioning an Idea into Non- representative
Parts ............ 69
Misunderstanding Emotional Stress and Strain
................ 70 Summary
................... 72
5 IDEAS, BELIEFS AND PARADIGMS
......... 74
What is a Paradigm? ............. 76
Paradigm Shifts ........... 78
Beliefs ................... 81
Ideas .................... 85
6 REALITY ................... 91
Holography .................. 93
Holographic Theory: An Enfolding- Unfolding
Universe ............. 97
Manifest and Nonmanifest Realms of Existence
................. 99
The Holographic Brain ............ 101
Substance and Order of the Holographic Domain
................... 107
Substance and Order of the Manifest Domain ..
110
Four Primary Realms of the Manifest Domain ..
113
Inner and Outer Realms of the Manifest Domain
................... 116
Interaction between the manifest and
Nonmanifest Domains ............ 120
Multiple Versions of Reality ......... 123
Awareness .................. 128
Channel (Frequency) Selection ........ 129
Attention .................. 129
Focal and Peripheral Awareness (Scope of
Awareness) ............ 132
Meta-awareness ................ 134
Awakeness and Asleepness ........... 135
Memory .................... 138
Intellectual ................ 139
Physical .................. 140
Emotional ................. 141
Visual ................... 143
Spiritual ................. 144
Time Regression ............... 147
Imagination ................. 153
7. INTELLIGENCE ................. 158
Intellectual ................. 161
Physical ................... 163
Emotional .................. 165
PART THREE WHAT IS EMOTION?
INTRODUCTION .................... 171
Dimensions of Emotion ............ 174
The Language of Emotion ........... 176
Feeling or Emotion? ............ 176
Two Kinds of Language ........... 180
Characteristics of Expression of Actual
Emotion ............ 181
9 THE ROLE AND FUNCTION OF EMOTION .......
184
A Disorganizing. Maladaptive Force? ..... 184
An Organizing. Adaptive Force? ........ 187
A Mode or Form of Perception ......... 190
A Monitor..Overseer.. of the organism’s Total
Life Situation ............ 191
A Direction Finder that Points the Organism
Toward or Away from the Stimulating Event
...................193
10 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRELATES OF EMOTION .....
197
Historical Perspective ............ 197
Limbic System (or Visceral Brain) ...... 205
Septum and Cingulate Gyrus ......... 206
Amygdala and Hippocampal Gyrus ....... 209
Epithalamus (Pineal Gland) ......... 210
Thalamus .................. 211
Hypothalamus ................ 212
Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) ........ 213
Sympathetic Division ............ 214
Head and Neck .....; ........ 217
Thoracic Viscera ............. 217
Abdominal Viscera and the Solar Plexus .. 218
Pelvis and Perinium ...........219
Skin ................... 219
Fear, Rage and Depression ........ 220
Rage and Gravity ............. 223
Parasympathetic Division .......... 226
Head and Neck .............. 226
Thoracic Viscera ............. 228
Abdominal viscera ............ 228
Pelvis and perinium ...........229
Blood Pressure and the ANS ......... 230
Endocrine System ...............231
Pituitary Gland (Hypophysis) ........ 231
Target Organs and Effects of Pituitary
Hormones ................233
Pineal Gland (Epithalamus) ......... 254
Thyroid Gland ............... 234
Thymus ...................235
Adrenal Glands ............... 235
Neurochemical Aspects of Emotion ....... 236
Catecholamines ............... 237
Endorphins ................. 238
11 CRYING .................... 239
General Considerations ............ 239
Crying and the Common Cold .......... 248
12 A HOLOGRAPHIC THEORY OF EMOTION .......
250
Emotion as a Constellation of Related Events
.................. 250
Stimulating Event .............. 251
Evaluation.................. 255
Impressions ...........;.... 257
Interpretation ...............259
Appraisal .................262
Belief Formation ..............264
Response ................... 266
Emotional ................. 268
Physical .................. 270
Intellectual ................ 272
Visual ................... 273
PART FOUR DEVELOPING EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
Contracting and Expanding .......... 278
Expanding Awareness ..............263
Releasing Binding Energy .......... 283
Peripheral Expansion ............ 286
Central Expansion ............. 287
What Does it Mean to Have an Emotional
Problem? ................. 288
The Process of Solving an Emotional Problem
................. 293
Clarifying the Problem ........... 296
Solutions Lie Hidden within the Problems ..
298
Functional vs. Organic Solutions ...... 300
Releasing Inhibition of Emotional Expression
............... 302
Gaining Insight into Immediate and Remote
Causes ............. 303
Variable Emotional Intelligence ...... 305
Quieting Emotion ........... 306
14 SELF-INTEGRATION ............... 308
The Process of Self-integration ....... 311
Intense Focusing ............... 317
Leading and Following ............ 322
Components of Self-integration ........ 324
Tuning In .................. 329
General Considerations ........... 329
Methods and Tools ............. 336
Waking Up Inside ............. 338
Distinguishing between Stress and Strain
............. 339
Locating the Problem ........... 340
Imagining and Visualizing ........ 340
Observing and Adjusting your "Scope of
Awareness” .............. 341
Maintaining Present Awareness ...... 345
Methods and Tools for Tuning In (Cont'd):
Paying Attention to How You Feel ... 346
Connecting with Desire .......... 347
Identifying Internal Fragmentation and
contradictions .......... 347
Observing Duplicity within Yourself ... 349
Accepting Feedback from Others ...... 350
Searching for Remote Causes ........352
Playing the Edge ............. 354
Journal Writing ............. 359
Examining the Relationships between Floods,
Attitudes and Beliefs ..... 364
Identifying and Evaluating Functional
Breakdowns .............. 367
Recording and Examining Dreams ...... 368
Practicing Hatha Yoga .......... 370
Coming out .................. 371
General Considerations ........... 371
Interpersonal Communication ........ 376
When to Hide Your Feelings ......... 378
Letting Go .................. 381
Running the Rapids ............. 382
Personal Transformation .......... 385
Voluntary and Involuntary Letting Go .... 387
Letting Go of Resistance to Accepting "What
Is" Emotionally ......... 388
The Subjective Experience .......... 391
Relating to Fear ............... 396
The Nature of Fear ............. 396
How to Relate to Fear ........... 403
Dynamics of the Release of Repressed Fear
............. 405
Relating to Pain ............... 408
Pain, the Bodyguard ............ 410
Pain, the Healer .............. 412
Allopathy and Homeopathy ......... 412
The Ratchet Effect of Healing Pain .... 413
Releasing Repressed Pain .......... 416
A Changing Relationship with Pain ..... 418
Relating to Desire .............. 419
The Role and Function of Desire ...... 420
The Nature of Desire ............ 423
Three Kinds of Desire .......... 424
Desire. Will and Will Power ....... 425
Natural Will vs. Altered Will ...... 426
Relating to Desire (Cont' d) : How to Relate
to Desire ......... 430
Opening to Desire ........ . . . . 431
Dealing with Attachments, Addictions and
Obsessions ... . . . . . . . .. 434
Suffocating Desire by Selective Suppression .
. , .. . ...... 437
Playing the Extremes of Conflicting Desires
..... . ... . . .... 439
FOOTNOTES BIBLIOGRAPHY ................... .
451 INDEX. ..... . ......... . .. . . ... 468
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
1 Principles involved in making a
hologram .... 95
2 Four subspaces of the manifest domain
"read out" of the frequency domain by the
mathematical processes of the brain 115
3 A model of consciousness reflecting
degrees of awakeness and degrees of
asleepness separated by a sleep barrier
.......137
4 Spontaneous movements in time
regression .... 152.
5 A child’s image of a 'cancer monster"
….156
6 Diagram of the neural connections in
James's theory.. .................. 197
1 Diagram of the neural connections in
Cannon's thalamic (inhibitory) theory
......... 201
8. Diagram of the neural connections in
Arnold's excitatory theory .............. 204
2 Components of the limbic system and
related structures--brain structures involved
in the experience and expression of emotion
..... 207
3 MacLean’s diagram of pathways
connecting three main subdivisions of the
limbic system .... 208
4 The sympathetic nervous system
......... 215
5 A schematic diagram of the
sympathetic division ................... 216
13. Diagram of electrochemical activities
of the autonomic nervous system ...........
222
A schematic diagram of the parasympathetic
division ................... 227
Location of endocrine glands .......... 232
A three-phase chain of events which
constitutes the phenomenon of emotion . . 252
Dimensions of contracting-expanding movement
.....................281
Alternative methods of partitioning a
"problem cloud”--only one of which reveals
the solution ................. 299
A graphic representation of relationships
between tuning in, coming out and letting go
.................. 325
Field and content of focal awareness ......
343
Increasing altitude of viewpoint with respect
to the content of the field of awareness ...
344.
Shifting viewpoint from that of observer to
that of experiencer ............. 345
Running the rapids ............... 383
The ratchet effect of healing pain .......
414
A visual representation of the process of
self-integration in terms of natural will and
altered will. ..............428
PART 1
BACKGROUND
CHAPTER 1 HOW TO RELATE TO EMOTION?
What is the natural, human way to relate to
emotion? Is it wise, for example, for you to
acknowledge within yourself what you are
feeling? Or is it best to turn your attention
away from your inner experiences and ignore
them? And, if acknowledged, should you
express what you feel? Or conceal it? Your
answers to these and related questions are
determined by the particular beliefs you hold
about emotion and the role it plays in your
life. Most of the time you are unaware of
these beliefs; you simply live your life
according to them with little or no
consideration given to why.
It is important for each of us to trace the
ancestry of our system of beliefs. We need to
know the basis of the decisions
(interpretations) that were made by our
ancestors about the nature of humans and
reality. Because it now appears that some of
those decisions may have been wrong.
In this chapter we will be looking
specifically at two mutually antagonistic
belief systems: one that advocates the
suppression of emotion, another that
advocates the expression of emotion.
THE SUPPRESSION OF EMOTION
In order to understand and fully appreciate
how many of us in Western civilization came
to feel as strongly as we do about the need
to control and conceal emotion, we must
examine the dynamics of the rise and fall of
Stoicism, a philosophical system that
flourished among the Greeks from about 300 BC
to 200 AD. For it was the Stoics who raised
important questions, for the first time in
the Western world, about the nature of
emotion and its function in life. Of even
greater significance, many of the issues that
were raised were subsequently put to rest
again--also by the Stoics--never again to be
seriously challenged. As a result we continue
to live much of our lives according to a
creed laid down 2,200 to 2,400 years ago--
even though Stoicism is said to have
collapsed in the third century AD.
After reconstructing the evolution of
Stoicism and analyzing its substance, we will
look at evidence of contemporary Stoicism--
particularly as it is expressed in the field
of emotion today.
THE EVOLUTION OF STOICISM
I'm presenting four aspects of the Stoic
movement. First, a look at the evolution of
Western civilization from the sixth century
BC to the third century AD, during which we
see the impact of Socrates and the
realization of self-consciousness, with three
schools of .Greek philosophy spinning off.
Second, Zeno of Citium, founder of Stoicism,
comes on the scene in 312 BC, and we look at
the interactions he had with these schools in
the formation of his philosophical system.
Third, we look at the fall of Stoicism, as a
philosophical movement, with the simultaneous
transfer of its creed from the Greeks to the
Romans and the Christian movement. And
fourth, I offer a brief analysis of the
substance of the Stoic creed in terms of
beliefs about the nature of emotion and
injunctions about how to relate to it.
The Seeds of Stoicism
In the ancient world of the Greeks and the
Romans the term philosophy carried a
different meaning than it does today.
Literally it meant "love of wisdom," and the
ancient philosopher often ventured into
fields that today are filled only with
scientists and specialists. Early in the
sixth century BC, according to historian
Gerald Kendall (1898), the Greek philosophers
took a sudden interest in exploring the
causes and origins of things. The first
question to arouse their curiosity was the
nature of the external world. What was it
made of? How did it come into being? How did
it continue to exist? Convinced of the
existence of an integrated, cosmic order in
the physical world around them, early
philosophers set about searching for the
underlying source of this unity and order.
Socrates. Preoccupation with the external
world continued for the next two centuries--
until the arrival of Socrates (c.469-399 BC).
He was the first to turn the philosophers’
attention to the inner nature of humans. This
shift had a profound impact on the Greek
world. Being human, it was not possible for
them to speculate on the nature of humans
without giving some consideration to their
own inner natures as well. This simple event
ushered in the realization of self-
consciousness.
Socrates, too, was convinced of the existence
of an underlying source of unity and order--
in the human world as well. Accordingly, he
set about searching for what he called the
"moral order" in the domain of human
relationships--the rules by which we ought to
live our lives for the betterment of all.
Furthermore, the path to the discovery of
this order, he insisted, was through self-
knowledge. The philosophical system he
founded can be summarized in the following
maxims, distilled from the works of
historians Gerald Rendall (1898) and F. H.
Sandbach (1975), which became the first
principles of Stoic dogma:
• An underlying source of unity and
order exists - - not only in the physical
universe, but in the domain of human
relationships.
• Virtue is knowledge. To know goodness
is to do good. Insight into the consequences
of action carries with it right conduct.
• Virtue may be taught. Knowledge of
what is good ensures the exercise of
goodness, and analysis of the contents of
goodness would place it within everyone's
grasp. Wrong-doing is a failure of insight,
springing from ignorance and lack of
education - - a mistake that will correct
itself as soon as the right way is discerned.
• No one willfully goes wrong. No
person perceiving the right course of action
would deliberately choose and pursue the
wrong.
• Virtue results in happiness.
Ignorance is the source of all human
suffering.
• Self-knowledge leads to virtue; know
thyself. The path to the discovery of virtue
is through self-knowledge.
• Only knowledge based on objective
facts can prescribe laws of moral conduct.
Emotion--including moods, impulses, desires
and passions, by reason of their individual
and subjective quality – can never furnish a
standard of right action.
This was the first time in the history of
Western civilization that people had openly
raised the question of how WE ought to relate
to emotion. Prior to that, people lived their
lives more or less according to the norms and
rituals passed on by their ancestors and the
church, And the church was very powerful.
Socrates was prosecuted and condemned to
death on a charge of "not recognizing the
gods recognized by the state, introducing new
divinities, and corrupting the young." Far
from checking his influence, however,
Socrates' death turned him into a martyr and
his influence grew.
Immediately after Socrates’ death his young
followers took up his work and attracted
others who were searching for a guide to
life. There was a flurry of writing, much of
it idealizing Socrates, representing him as
the writers would have liked him to be.
Sandbach (1975) describes several separate
movements that were generated out of this,
three of which are of particular significance
in the formation of Stoicism: the Academy,
the Cynics and the Megarians.
The Academy. Plato was one of Socrates' most
devoted and influential followers. He
established a philosophical body in about 388
BC that came to be known as the Academy,
simply because it was housed in buildings
near the exercise grounds of an academy.
The Academy flourished. It was led by men of
wealth who could freely devote themselves to
philosophical, mathematical .and scientific
studies, and the young men who attended their
lectures and classes were from well-to-do
families. Aristotle came to work there as a
youth from Macedonia in 367 BC and remained
until Plato's death twenty years later.
In the hands of Plato and his colleagues, the
scope of virtue was expanded beyond knowledge
to include: thought, emotion and will.
Moreover, they were more interested in the
natures and processes of these phenomena--and
how to relate to them--than they were in
their contents or substance. They studied
ethics, said Aristotle, not in order to know
what goodness is but in order to become good.
The Cynics. Unlike the masters and pupils of
the Academy, Socrates had been a relatively
poor man. His clothes were old and he usually
went barefoot. This aspect of Socrates
appealed to Antisthenes, one of his
followers, who maintained that wealth and
poverty were not to be found in the material
world but in the soul, and that his own lack
of material possessions gave him freedom. He
wrote copiously; his writing stimulated
Diogenes, the first of the Cynics, to preach
the ascetic manner of life as the natural way
and the path to freedom. Diogeiles died
before Zeno came to Athens and leadership of
the Cynics was passed on to Crates. From
Sandbach:
. . . "Cynic" means "canine," and the first
dog had been Diogenes, who was given that
nickname because of h .is shameless behavior,
and who accepted it as being the watchdog of
morality. . . . Cynicism was hardly a
philosophy; it was more an attitude and a way
of life. (1975, p. 20)
The Cynics also accepted Socrates’ formula
that virtue is knowledge. As they developed
and refined their idea of virtue, however,
they did not go in the same direction as
Plato and his successors. Rather than
expanding virtue to include thought, emotion
and will, the Cynics limited their idea of
virtue to knowledge and will, i.e., self-
control. Antisthenes tried to exclude from
consideration everything except the natures
of desire and will, examining how will is
translated into action. In so doing, the sole
concern of the Cynic became the "correct
adjustment" of the individual. What was
"correct" was discernable by reason alone.
"Adjustment" was to be achieved by an act of
will alone. Sandbach continues:
The Cynics had some admirable or at any rate
attractive doctrines. To be good is all that
matters; to be good brings happiness; to be
wise, that is to know how to act, makes one
good; one ought to live naturally, and
freely. But these are isolated principles
rather than a philosophic system; and they
assume that anyone can see what constitutes
goodness and what a natural life is.
"Virtue," Antisthenes had said, "is not a
thing that needs a lot of talk," and when
asked what was the most necessary branch of
learning, he had replied, "to unlearn your
vices." (1975, P.21)
Rendall describes further aspects of Cynic
doctrine:
Inasmuch as virtue was an act of will, within
the individual control, all wants or desires,
whether from within or from without, that lay
outside the realization of the will, were
contradictions of virtue which the wise man
would not tolerate. . . . An act of will was
sufficient for the realization of virtue and
happiness. Outer relationships and inner
dissatisfactions were within the province of
the will; and all that threatened to
contravene or abridge its independence must,
in behoof of virtue and happiness, be willed
away. Wants must be reduced to the dimensions
of will. (1898, p. xxxvi)
Tile Megarians. Socrates 's influence
extended beyond Athens to other cities. A
school developed in Megara which focused its
attention on logic--pure dialectic. Euclides
was associated with this school. Sensitive
only to the intellectual dimension of the
Socratic influence, Euclides divorced
dialectic from experience and consciousness,
and by processes of pure logic was led to
deny the reality of matter, of motion, of
becoming--of everything except the idea,
"That which is, is." Scholars of the Megarian
school enjoyed musing over logical puzzles
and inventing arguments that seemed to lead
to paradoxical conclusions. Socrates, after
all, had been a master at that himself.
Zeno of Citium, Founder of Stoicism
Sandbach describes the Stoat Pokily, or
Painted Colonnade, which stood at the north-
west corner of the central square in Athens.
Its name was a reflection of the mural
paintings by great artists of the fifth
century BC, such as Polygnotus, that adorned
it. Here, in the early part of the third
century BC, could often be seen a figure
seated on the porch--or stoa--talking to a
group of listeners. His name was Zeno. His
followers, first called Zenonians, were later
described as "men from the Stoa," or
"Stoics." Zeno of Citium (c.333-262 BC) is
thus considered to be the founder of
Stoicism, although the seeds of Stoicism were
planted by Socrates, who is considered to be
the first of the Stoics.
Born in Citium, on the island of Cyprus, Zeno
came to Athens in the year 312 or 311 BC at
the age of 22. Little is known about his
childhood. Being of Phoenician descent,
Rendall suggests that
. .. it seems probable that Zeno had early
imbibed the theistic or monotheistic
conceptions of the East; the Oriental strain,
which reappears in almost every
representative of the School, can hardly be
accidental, and goes far to prove that
Eastern predispositions were latent in the
Stoic creed. (1898, p. xxxix)
It would indeed be interesting and
illuminating to examine the extent of Zeno's
exposure to Eastern thought before he left
the island of Cyprus. It is probable that
this exposure was significant, especially
when one looks at the beliefs and way of life
of the men who attracted Zeno in his search
for truth: Crates the Cynic, Polemo, and
Stilpo the Megarian.
Sandbach passes the story on that Zeno, soon
after his arrival in Athens, sat down by a
bookseller who was reading aloud from Book II
of Xenophon's Reminiscences of Socrates
(Memorabilia). He listened for awhile, then
asked where men of that kind were to be
found. At that moment Crates the Cynic
happened to pass by and the bookseller
replied, "Follow that man." Whether this
story is true or merely descriptive, there is
no doubt that Zeno was much impressed by
Crates and fell under his influence soon
after his arrival in Athens.
Although Zeno found much in Cynicism that
attracted him, it did not satisfy his
curiosity. Because it was more a way of life
than a philosophy, it offered more rules than
explanations. After a time he became a pupil
of Polemo, a man who succeeded Xenocrates as
head of the Academy two years after Zeno's
arrival in Athens. Through Polemo, Zeno was
exposed to the ideas of Socrates as developed
and organized by Plato and his successors at
the Academy.
There were two leaders of the Megarian
school. Diodorus "Cronus" and Stilpo, and
Zeno is reputed to have listened to both of
them. Through his discourse with them he
later discovered the ability of logic to show
the falsity in arguments that seem to lead to
paradoxical conclusions, beating them at
their own games, This, however, was not
Zeno’s primary attraction to the Megarian
School. Rather, he was attracted to Stilpo--
philosophically and personally. Stilpo's
moral teaching was not unlike that of the
Cynics, Nor was his personal lifestyle.
Sandbach describes Stilpo:
, . . He saw the wise man as entirely self-
sufficient, needing no friends, quite
independent of external possessions: no one
could take from him his wisdom, and he was
unaffected by the misfortunes that other men
would count as evils. (1975, p. 22)
We are uncertain when Zeno began to talk on
the Stoa or at what point his philosophical
system had evolved to where the name of
Stoicism could be given. There was never the
formal foundation of a school; the Stoics had
no physical facilities, no legal status in
society. Rather, there must have been a
gradual process of growth as Zeno developed
his ideas and attracted to himself an
increasing number of followers, many from
across the Mediterranean Sea.
Zeno died in 262 BC at the age of about 70.
Cleanthes and Chrysippus were his immediate
successors. Chrysippus (c. -280-206 BC) is
credited with expanding and, to some extent,
modifying the views of Zeno and establishing
what can be called an orthodoxy. Stoicism
continued to be a lively influence in the
Greek world for the first two centuries AD.
We know of this influence more from the
writings of opponents of Stoicism, like
Plutarch, Galen and Sextus Enipiricus, than
from the writings of the Stoics themselves.
There is no evidence that an organized school
continued in Athens after it was sacked by
the Romans in S6 BC.
The Fall of Stoicism and the Rise of
Christianity
One of the difficulties facing anyone
interested in reconstructing this period in
history is that not a single work remains
today that was written by any of the Greek
Stoics during the first three-hundred years
after .the foundation of the school. The
Stoic literature that has been passed down to
us was written by the Roman Stoics, long
after it had evolved into an established
system of beliefs among the Greeks. Comparing
the Greek and Roman Stoics, Sandbach writes:
. . . Very different from one another, they
share a common outlook, They have a minimal.
interest in anything but ethics and see in
Stoic philosophy an established system of
beliefs that could guide, comfort, and
support a man in the difficulties and dangers
of life. They are preachers of a religion,
not humble inquirers after truth. (1975, p.
17)
Stoicism collapsed in tile third century AD.
It had failed to solve the human problems it
had addressed. The peace and prosperity of
the previous few centuries decayed suddenly
into turmoil and poverty, erupting into civil
war, with an increasingly restrictive form of
society emerging. Stoicism could not compete
with the new religions offering life after
death as consolation for the suffering of
this world. People were giving up in their
attempts to solve the human problems
confronting society; the best they could now
hope for was a better life after death--if
they lived their lives according to Christian
dogma.
Many historians agree that Christian dogma
was heavily influenced by Stoicism. Sandbach
wrote that Stoicism "provided a great deal of
material to those members of the Christian
church who wished to build up an intellectual
structure on their faith." And in Rendall's
words:
. . . Stoicism bequeathed no small part of
its disciplines, its dogmas, and its
phraseology to the Christianity by which it
was ingathered. In these respects its history
resembles that of a religion rather than a
speculative system. . . . Supervening at the
moment when the original forces of Greek
thought fell back exhausted, Stoicism . . .
evolved moral and social conceptions that
have become an heirloom of Western
civilization, and are embedded in the inmost
structure of the Christian state. (1898, p.
xv)
Indeed, when one examines the dogma laid down
by the Stoics and by the Christians one finds
that many of the formulas for the "good life"
prescribed by the Stoics live on today in
Christianity virtually unchanged--
particularly where emotion and will (self-
control) are concerned.
One area of Stoic philosophy that was
rejected in the transfer to Christianity was
Zeno's position on sexual behavior. Sandbach
writes that Diogenes the Cynic, in his
Republic, had approved all forms of coition
in his campaign to return to nature and cast
off human conventions. Influenced most likely
by Diogenes, Zeno also advocated sexual
permissiveness--which extended to homosexual
acts. He favored a "community of wives,"
suggesting that "any man should lie with any
woman." Incest was not unnatural, according
to Zeno, being common among animals; and
children produced by such a free society
would be cared for by their elders in the
community.
What about love? Did the Stoics not love one
another? Yes, according to Rendall, but not
with any emotion akin to what we call
passion:
. . . The quality of love is various. . . .
The [Greek] forms in which this sympathy for
man is set forth are devoid of emotion; if
the term of passion ever escapes the sage's
lips, it is the thought of Nature, not of man
that stirs it. The love of neighbor is not an
outgoing of personal affection, but at most a
befriending care for kind; it falls short of
"brotherhood" (the term adopted in
translation)--for it is not indeed direct
from man to man, but transmitted through the
cosmos. It remains impersonal and generic,
belonging to the same moral category as
patriotism, or political fraternity, or
devotion to a cause: but, spread over a
larger and less tangible object, it falls
short of these in ardor of desire, and much
more lacks the effusion, the joy, the
impulsive energy and the quick indignations
of altruistic love. Therefore to the last it
condemns the Stoic to some lukewarmness of
faith and ineffectiveness of personal appeal.
(1898, pp. cxl-cxli)
The Stoic Creed What, then, have we inherited
from the Stoics? This is not easy to answer.
First, in spite of the orthodoxy established
by Chryssipus, the Stoics were never in
agreement about how to relate to emotion. The
Cynics, for example, were much more extreme
in their rejection of emotion than those of
the Academy. Aristotle felt that there was a
place for “good emotions" in the virtuous
life, although he warned that only the wisest
of men should meddle with them due to the
danger of the "good emotion” getting out of
hand and growing into passion.
Second, each of us was, at birth, brought
into a unique system of beliefs handed down
by our parents, extended
family, schools and church. Accordingly, some
of us are more subject to the influence of
Stoic-Christian
beliefs than others, depending on the
circumstances of our births.The following
statements are the result of a
phenomenological analysis of the beliefs and
injunctions of the three schools that
influenced the formation of Zeno's
philosophical system. They are by no means
intended to represent the whole of Stoic
philosophy. Rather, I have chosen to include
only those that are (1) relevant to the
question--directly or indirectly--of how to
relate to emotion; and (2) of questionable
validity today in view of what we have
learned about humans in the past 2,500 years:
• Virtue is an act of will. The power
of will (self-control) is sufficient for the
realization of goodness and happiness.
• Only knowledge based on objective
facts—divorced from personal experience--can
prescribe laws of moral conduct. Such
knowledge can be deduced from logic alone.
• Emotion--including moods, impulses,
fears, desires, pains and pleasures--can
never prescribe laws of moral conduct. Such
personal experience is too individual, too
unique, too self-centered, and unreliable.
Emotional responses to everyday living are
within the province of the will and can be s
electively modified by acts of self control.
We can feel however we will ourselves to
feel; all it requires is a strong will.
• Inner problem states (fear, pain and
desire) are within the province of the will.
Undesirable emotional responses can simply be
willed away as a matter of choice.
• The wise person will not tolerate any
want or desire, whether from within or from
without, that lay outside the realization of
the will. All that comes in conflict with, or
acts counter to, the will must be willed
away. Desire must be reduced to the
dimensions of will, i.e., you must allow
yourself to want only what you will yourself
t o want.
• The wise person is entirely self-
sufficient. He or she needs no friends and is
quite independent of external possessions.
• The wise person is unaffected by the
misfortunes that others would count as evils.
CONTEMPORARY STOICISM
The Stoic creed, having transformed from a
philosophy to a religion, continued to gain
momentum--in the form of Christianity. Which
is not to suggest that philosophy remained
unaffected by the Stoic movement. On the
contrary, it took the form of rationalism,
which reached its fullest expression in
Descartes in the seventeenth century; this
philosophy contrasted reason and emotion by
holding that humans can become rational
beings only by minimizing their baser,
emotional characteristics.
By the turn of the 18th century it was
commonly believed, throughout Europe and
America, and among the educated as well as
the uneducated, that uncontrolled expression
of emotion, especially weeping, was evidence
of insanity.
Eighteenth-Century Stoicism
Benjamin Rush (1745-1813), physician and
political leader, played no small part in
reaffirming the Stoic creed in this country
during its formative stages. Besides being
active in the field of medicine, he was a
member of Congress; his signature appears on
the Declaration of Independence; he was a
member of the convention for adopting the
Constitution of the United States; he was
founder and president of the Society for the
Abolition of Slavery; and he served as
treasurer of the United States from 1799
until his death.
Rush wrote numerous medical treatises on
"mental illness" and its treatment, and by
1800 his treatment methods had pervaded every
"insane asylum” in the United States. These
methods were continued in some institutions
for nearly a hundred years. D. Hack Tuke
(1884) describes Rush's methods:
Rush held that the cause of insanity was
seated primarily in the blood vessels of the
brain. He held further that "venesection
[copious bloodletting] is necessary in
consequence of there being no outlet from the
brain to relieve the usual results of disease
or inflammation, particularly the discharge
of serum from the blood-vessels." Rush
introduced two classes of treatment methods:
“medical” and "moral". Under medical
treatment, in addition to venesection, which
was the first remedy in cases of mania, he
included: (1) the application of leeches to
the jugular veins; (2) a cathartic
administered once a week; (3) "taking vomits"
by the administration of emetics; (4)
inducing sneezing by the administration of
errhines; and (5) deprivation of customary
food.
Moral treatments included: (1) the straight-
jacket; (2) the "tranquilizer" (restraint
chair); (3) pouring cold water into the coat
sleeves "so that it might descend down the
trunk and body generally”; (4) the cold
shower bath in succession to the warm bath
(Rush wrote about keeping a "torpid patient"
in a warm bath for an hour or two, then
leading him, "soaking with vapor,” to the
cold shower, "which gave the most powerful
shock to the system . . . it extorted cries
and groans from persons that had been dumb
for years"); (5) forcing refractory patients
to retain "the erect position of the body”--
based on a method of taming refractory horses
in England; and (6) in Rushes words, "If all
these modes of punishment [italics mine] fail
of their intended effects, it will be proper
to resort to the fear of death."
Today, these barbaric methods of treatment
have been replaced by such methods as
electric shock treatment, psychosurgery,
tranquillizers and psychotherapy. For the
most part, only the methods have changed; the
objectives remain the same: the control of
emotional excitation and expression.
Many of us today fear uncontrolled emotional
expression, such as weeping, with an
intensity that rivals our fear of death. Is
it any wonder, when we consider the strength
of its suppression among our ancestors? Some
of us are direct descendants of the people
who were locked up and tortured for
expression emotion. Others of us are
descendents of those who administered the
torture.
Nineteenth-Century Stoicism
Charles Darwin (1872), naturalist, and
William James (1584, 1890), psychologist,
were by far the most influential writers in
the field of emotion in the 19th century.
Given the times it should come as no surprise
that these men were chips off the old Stoic
block. In the following passage, for example,
Darwin shares his beliefs about unrestrained
emotion and weeping:
The insane notoriously give way to all their
emotions with little or no restraint; and I
am informed by Dr. J. Crichton Browne, that
nothing is more characteristic of simple
melancholia, even in the male sex, than a
tendency to weep on the slightest occasions,
or from no cause [italics mine]. They also
weep disproportionately on the occurrence of
any real cause of grief. . . . We must not,
however, lay too much stress on the copious
shedding of tears by the insane, as being due
to the lack of all restraint; for certain
brain diseases, as hemiphlegia, brain
wasting, and senile decay, have a special
tendency to induce weeping. Weeping is common
in the insane, even after a complete state of
fatuity has been reached and the power of
speech lost. Persons born idiotic likewise
weep; but it is said that this is not the
case with cretins. (1872, pp. 153-4)
James expresses very similar beliefs:
. . . In every asylum we find examples of
absolutely unmotivated [italics mine] fear,
anger, melancholy, or conceit; and others of
an equally unmotivated apathy which persists
in spite of the best of outward reasons why
it should give way. In the former cases we
must suppose the nervous machinery to be so
"labile" in some one emotional direction,
that almost every stimulus, however
inappropriate, will cause it to upset in that
way. (1884, p. 23)
It is clear that both Darwin and James
believed that any expression of emotion must
be caused by forces visible to another
person--any other sane, rational person like
themselves. If they could see no logical,
external basis for an emotional expression,
they assumed no basis existed; it was "from
no cause, absolutely unmotivated," other than
"labile nervous machinery." Darwin continues:
The length of time during which some patients
weep is astonishing, as well as the amount of
tears which they shed. One melancholic girl
wept for a whole day, and afterwards
confessed to Dr. Browne, that it was because
she remembered that she had once shaved off
her eye- brows to promote their growth. Many
patients in the asylum sit for a long time
rocking themselves backwards and forwards;
"and if spoken to, they stop their movements,
purse up their eyes, depress the corners of
the mouth, and burst out crying." (1872, p.
153)
James was adamant about the need to suppress
"undesirable" emotion, and his suggested
methods of achieving such suppression were
identical in many ways with those advocated
by the Cynics:
. . . There is no more valuable precept in
moral education than this, as all who have
experience know: if we wish to conquer
undesirable emotional tendencies in
ourselves, we must assiduously, and in the
first instance cold-bloodedly, go through the
outward motions of those contrary
dispositions we prefer to cultivate.
. . . When we teach children to repress their
emotions, it is not that they may feel more;
quite the reverse. It is that they may think
more; for to a certain extent whatever nerve
currents are diverted from the regions below,
must swell the activity of the thought tracts
of the brain. (1884, pp. 20-23)
Twentieth-Century Stoicism
Freud was not primarily interested in emotion
and had very little to say about it directly.
Me was more interested in the instincts,
which he postulated to be the driving forces
experienced as emotion, which led to action:
. . . An instinct differs from a stimulus in
that it arises from sources of stimulation
within the body, operates as a constant
force, and is such that the subject cannot
escape from it by flight as he can from an
external stimulus. An instinct may be
described as having a source, an object and
an aim. The source is a state of excitation
within the body, and its aim is to remove
that excitation. (1933, p. 133)
Freud thus assumed that there is an
instinctive defense against any excitation of
the organism. This defense, supposedly
achieved by the superego, employs aggressive
forces against the sources of excitation. In
this sense, Freud viewed the natural state of
the organism to be a state of absence of
emotion, supporting the Stoic creed.
Bruno Bettelheim is a Vienna-born disciple of
Freud and one of the world's foremost
authorities on childhood psychosis. Jim
Jacobs, reporting on a lecture by Bettelheim,
quotes him as saying:
"To let it all hang out” is not a livable
premise. Controlling your feelings is the key
to successful living. If you express all of
your feelings to the one you love, your mate
will escape.
"Relationships are bounded by respect for the
feelings of the other person, not yourself,"
he shouts.
"That's why England is so civilized, so
livable. They have more concern for the
feelings of the other person than for their
own. Japan, too. For an American, if the
Japanese doesn't know you, he gives you dirt.
If he knows you, he is only concerned with
what you want or what he thinks you want. You
can never say what you feel because it has
such an impact--it is so rude for the other
person.
"Things are often not quite what they seem.
Speaking your mind might be unnatural."
A woman in the audience tries to tell
Bettelheim that not ever speaking her mind
has caused her problems in the past. A man
who expresses anger with his child over the
making of a mess in the living room seconds
her emotion.
"But this doesn't solve the problem," he
counters swiftly. "The source of your anger
is important, not the expression of it.
Expression of feeling--letting off steam--is
always done instead of solving the problem.
It gives momentary relief but finding the
cause of the problem is not dealt with. The
steam will re-appear." (1980)
In his first novel, In Guilt and in Glory,
Irishman David Hanly portrays his view of the
changing shape of Ireland and the United
States. He draws from his experiences with
American visitors at the Irish Tourist Board.
He has very definite opinions about the
tendency of Americans to "let it all hang
out. " In an interview with Judy Stone he
says:
. . . "I think discipline has completely
broken down in the educational field: 'It's
all right if you don't know it. It's all
right if you don't learn it.' Like Diane
Keaton said in "Annie Hall": 'I'm more in
touch with my own feelings."'
Hanley looked exasperated. "I can't
understand people saying things like that.
What are they talking about? Where is the
sense of personal responsibility for your own
thoughts and your own actions? It doesn't
matter what other people think. You have to
lie on your own pillow at night and answer to
yourself.”'
''Maybe the ability to do this comes from
being brought up in a strict Catholic way or
a strict Jewish way. It doesn't matter which
one. . . . Stand up on your own two feet and
look after yourself and bear your own
problems. . . .”
. . . He despises the attitude of many
Americans "that whatever happens in private
should be known about in public. I think this
is a dangerous and deadly philosophy and goes
back to the psychiatrists who are adjuring
people to let it all hang out. Which is
rubbish and nonsense and they ought to be
shot. There is such a thing as privacy and
privacy is a good thing."
"Everybody I know here has been to a shrink.
It implies to me the jettisoning of
responsibility for yourself. It implies that
guilt is a bad thing. Guilt is a wonderful
thing.”
"I’m so grateful for the Catholic Church to
have hammered the shit out of me when I was a
child, because there can be no art without
conflict. No true art, think. If there's no
guilt, where are you? It is implicit that in
a world without guilt, there's no moral
stance whatsoever. (1979)
Nowhere do we find the Stoic creed so
strongly advocated today than in The
personage of Pope John Paul II. While his
views on appropriate sexual behavior per se
are Christian, rather than Stoical, he
stresses the need to suppress the "internal
impulses of the heart”--especially lust
(sexual desire) --and offers classical
Stoical methods of self-control for dealing
with such undesirable emotion. Quotations
from the San Francisco Chronicle over the
past three years illustrate this point:
. . . On October 10 the pope created a furor,
particularly in the Italian press, by saying:
"Adultry in the heart [sexual desire] is
committed not only because a man looks in a
certain way at a woman who is not his wife .
. . but even if he were to look that way at
the woman who is his wife, he would be
committing the same adultry in the heart.”
(October 23, 1980)
“. . . Deep and mature spontaneity comes only
with self control." (November 13, 1980)
Pope John Paul II said yesterday that men and
women can achieve salvation only by
controlling their sexual desires and
overcoming carnal lust. . .
"Redemption becomes a reality in the mastery
of oneself through temperance, that is
continence of the desires," John Paul told
4000 visitors at his weekly general audience
at the Vatican. (December 4, 1980)
Pope John Paul II said yesterday that "sins
of the flesh” include not only fornication
but emotions such as jealousy, envy and
unfriendliness. (January 8, 1981)
Pope John Paul II said yesterday the shame
people feel about their sexual organs helps
them maintain holiness and honor. . . . The
pope said shame about the human body stems
from the original sin of Adam and Eve and is
part of God's plan for salvation. . . .
"It is precisely by controlling the body in
holiness and honor that we overcome the
present discord within us," the pope said.
"We restore harmony by purity of heart."
(February 5, 1981)
These statements take on special significance
when we consider that John Paul topped the
list of men "most admired" by the American
public in Gallup polls conducted over the
past three years.
THE EXPRESSION OF EMOTION
I have found little evidence that anyone
encouraged the recognition or expression of
emotion until the late 1800's. Whenever the
issue was raised the same conclusions were
reached: emotion--especially passion and
desire--must be controlled and concealed.
The theories of William James (1884, 1890)
and Carl Lange (1884) are similar in ways,
though they were conceived and developed
independently. Because of this, it has become
common practice to refer to their theories
collectively as the "James-Lange theory"; and
because James's version was considered by
many to be the clearest expression of the
physiological aspects of the theory, Langets
contribution was all but lost in the
amalgamation. This is extremely unfortunate,
because there was a major difference in their
beliefs about the role and function of
emotion in our lives: unlike James, Lange saw
emotion as being a natural element in human
nature and of the utmost importance. He
writes :
. . . It must be but a meager conception of
man's existence to consider pain and
pleasure, pity and . anger, defiance and
humility, as conditions foreign to normal
life, or even as something from which one
must turn away if one wishes to recognize the
actual nature of man-kind. A theory which
makes the power of admiring the great, of
deriving pleasure from the beautiful, and of
being moved by misfortune, a disease, results
in a limitation of the extent of our mental
life. Such a theory will consider the
imperturbable arithmetic teacher, to whom
every impression is merely an impulse to draw
rational conclusions, as the only normal,
healthy individual. It is a strange
conception of the interaction of mental
powers to consider as accidental that which
plays a larger and more vital part than
normal reason in the mental life of most men,
and which determines to a much higher degree
than reason the fate of nations as well as of
individuals.
Who would wish to cure an unhealthy mind, if
by so doing he would rob man of all that goes
to make him a sympathetic creature; that
enables him to share the pleasure and pain of
those of his kind; and to admire his like or
to hate them? No,--however true it may be
that we must eliminate our passions wherever
it is a question of calm consideration, clear
recognition, or unbiased judgment, it is
undoubtedly just as sure that we cannot
consider an individual who can only think,
recognize, judge--but not suffer, fear or
rejoice--a true, healthy, complete human
being, even if occasionally these abilities
may be detrimental to his power of
understanding and judgment. (1884. p. 33)
I find myself wondering: did James's theory
survive truly because it was the clearest
expression? Depending upon which aspects of
their work one chooses to emphasize, it could
be argued with equal validity that Lange's
work was indeed the clearest. It is certainly
true that James's theory was more in harmony
with the Stoic system of beliefs, which had
by then become the foundation of Western
civilization. Lange's ideas would necessarily
have appeared as a threat to such a
suppressive system.
Kahlil Gibran (1923), poet, philosopher and
artist, places passion (emotion) on a par
with reason. He also questions the wholeness
of a human being ruled by reason alone:
Your reason and your passion are the rudder
and the sails of your seafaring soul.
If either your sails or your rudder be
broken, you can but toss and drift, or else
be held at a standstill in mid-seas.
For reason, ruling alone, is a force
confining; and passion, unattended, is a
flame that burns to its own destruction.
Therefore let your soul exalt your reason to
the height of passion, that it may sing;
And let it direct your passion with reason,
that your passion may live through its own
daily resurrection, and like the phoenix rise
above its own ashes. (P.50)
Marilyn Ferguson, editor of the Braidblind
Bulletin and author of The Brain Revolution
and The Aquarian Conspiracy, talks about
changes taking place today in our attitudes
toward feelings and emotion:
. . . Our culture has been dominated by the
left side [of the brain], . . . and we have
been afraid of our feelings. We feel guilty
if we pay attention to them. But we are
entering an era in which the right brain will
be recognized as a valid source of wisdom and
creative power. The way we develop those
deeper right-brain responses . . . is through
psycho technologies--meditation, biofeedback,
self-hypnosis and various Eastern practices
such as Zen and Yoga.
. . . Brain research on the right hemisphere
shows that what we used to call intuition is
actually a phenomenon of the nervous system.
We can trust it; we don't have to be afraid
of it. . . .
You have to have the experience that there is
something sane inside yourself that you can
trust, that is really life-affirming, and you
can become stronger and saner by tapping into
it. The more you have self-knowledge, the
less you need to repress your emotions out of
fear of the self. Who is this self that we're
afraid of?"
Many people have become engaged in a search
for self-knowledge, reaching for an
understanding of their own natures.
Increasingly, through endeavors such as those
mentioned by Ferguson, people are discovering
that emotion is an asset in their lives
rather than something to be feared and
avoided. Richard Chamberlain, actor, is one
such person. Responding to an interview with
Chamberlain, Lois Armstrong writes:
“.. . I always thought you had to be well-
behaved and never let people know when you
were upset," Richard explains. "Now I have
learned to express anger. In Japan they value
repression. They avoid confrontation because
they revere inner harmony, or wa. I find wa
at the moment by letting whomever I'm angry
at know it." Chamberlain's samurai
assertiveness training, he says, was just the
follow-up to four years of Gestalt and other
therapeutic approaches. He is much less
self-absorbed now. . . .
Chamberlain attributes his new assurance to
friend and holistic healer Brugh Joy, . . .
his guru for the past three years. "I feel
more comfortable with myself, with fewer
violent ups and downs," says Richard. . . .
Courses consist of yoga-like exercises from
the lower abdomen (the home, says Joy, of
creative as well as sexual energy) to the top
of the head (cosmic awareness). . . . "I have
much more positive and creative directions, a
much better flow in my life, and my
relationships are more fun and have more
depth." (1980)
SUMMARY
Stoicism had a tremendous impact on the
world. It changed the direction of our search
altogether--expanding the scope beyond the
physical, material world to include the
inner, subjective world of humans. In turning
their attention to humans, three aspects of
human existence drew the interest of the
Stoics: thought, emotion and will (self-
control). Their concern, specifically, was
how to relate to each of these in the most
constructive way. The Academy and the
Flegarian schools developed intellectual
systems that addressed the question of how to
develop thought. From these systems developed
the intellectual basis for the suppression of
emotion. The Cynics developed a way of life
that addressed the question of how to develop
will (self-control). This way of life
provided the means by which to accomplish the
suppression of emotion.
The Stoics thus learned a great deal about
developing thought (logic) and will (self-
control). Since the suppression of emotion
became the focus of both thought and will,
however, we have had little opportunity to
learn about the nature of emotion in its free
state, unfettered by either the intellect or
the will. We have learned only to suppress
it.
It took us more than 300 years to discover
the effects of smoking cigarettes; and it has
taken us 2,500 years to discover the effects
of suppressing emotion--and we are just
beginning to explore this.