Hi Klaus,
The three part model of emotion proposed by Damasio offers many benefits in
separating and clarifying things that are otherwise badly muddied when
conflated:
1. Emotion as the ongoing physical response to an organism’s changing
environment. Emotion is found in all organisms. Mostly an individual is not
conscious of emotion.
2. Feeling as the perception of emotional physical changes as changes to
neural maps – also in turn perhaps causing emotional responses with further
changes in feelings. Mostly there is no consciousness of feeling. Feelings
as changes in neural maps are found in most higher order organisms as part
of the processes modifying agency and at the heart of ‘learning’.
3. Perception of ‘oneself feeling an emotion’. This is when the physical
changes of emotions, perceived in brain changes as feelings, are perceived
in the ‘mind’ as being part of the life of an individual. Very little of the
emotional and feeling activity is perceived. We have crude categories for
some of the more obvious groupings of emotion/feeling patters when perceived
as being felt by oneself, such as fear, happiness, sadness etc. The key
issue is the sense of self. Feeling in a human sense requires one to feel
that it is oneself that is feeling the feeling, i.e. feeling without sense
of self is meaningless.
This is the simple picture, and already resolves many of the messier issues
in design theory relating to emotion in design and emotion in relation to
user interaction. A more sophisticated picture is already available and
growing further in cognitive neuroscience. It awaits development in design
theory with regard to individual and social aspects of designing.
I’m aware that this is very different from the picture of emotion implicit
in what you say. The picture above reflects what is known about how we
function as humans. It is different form earlier views on emotion based on
how we have reflected about the emotional side of our lives prior to this
new knowledge. In part it illustrates the weakness of our self perception
and self reflection processes.
Best wishes,
Terry
____________________
From: Klaus Krippendorff [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
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this hasn't created a model of emotions nor dispelled the widely held belief
that the emotions we attribute to people (and things) are only inside the
mind or body of the atributee. without getting into an elaborate argument
here, a good deal of what we call emotions are the product of situation
specific (verbal) attribution and the compliance or learning of such
attributions on the part of those whose emotions are attributed. hence
emotions are socially distinguished and individually complied with -- as
evidenced by significant cross-cultural differences in both their
distinctions and the situational appropriateness of having them.
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