Two Emotions
I did a speech in November which I called Star Stuff. While researching material for it, I came across the idea that there are only a limited number of basic emotions, from which all other emotions are derived. Some people say nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, and some say only two. I found references to two basic emotions in A Course in Miracles. They said the two emotions were love and fear. That didn't feel right to me, probably because I love symmetry. But I knew that if there were only two emotions, they wouldn't be love and hate, because hate is so obviously a derivative of fear or even a corruption of love. Last night, it occurred to me that maybe the two basic emotions, beautifully symmetrical, are hope and fear. Could love be an expression of hope?
posted by Marianne at 10:45 PM
5 Comments:
Marianne- I've heard this same classification, and also wondered about it. Love and fear. Perhaps it seems asymmetrical because they're not really opposites. What's the opposite of love? Hate? What's the opposite of fear? Fearlessness? Hope?
I think it works if one defines "love" broadly, as "positive connection with and expression of a higher force" or something like that.
Gad that sounds wordy.
It's another interesting way of thinking, at any rate.
Peg
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What are the fundamental emotions?
Love and Fear seem asymmetrical because they are not opposites. However, in order to classify them, we must look at their functionalities, polarities, and thus derive their categorization.
(I'll restrict myself to the most contextually sound definition of each.)
Love is a devotion to the other party in the relationship, often expressed in honest concern as well as mushy love notes. It is the emotional equivalent of two particles drawn together because of gravity or magnetism. Hate would be the opposite, the emotional equivalent of particles repelling each other. Keep in mind that relationship-type emotions can be mismatched, such as "I love my car" (when the car can't love him back) or "I hate Bush" (when Bush knows him only as a citizen of America) or "I know my girlfriend loves me" (when she thinks of him as a good boyfriend until Mr Right comes into her life).
Fear and Hope are the polar opposites regarding the future, both immediate and long-term, and even the past if the outcome is not yet known. (Think lottery results in the next morning's paper.) They are expectations, imperative-type emotions in the future tense. Their polarity is based on which outcome is desired. If met, there is satisfaction. (Which seems to explain why some people live in fear; when their expectation is justified, they don't regret the time they spent fearing.)
There are three types of emotions, relationships, imperatives, and identities. We have seen two so far.
Identity-type emotions involve value judgements, identifications, labels. Blogs are fun. My childhood was idyllic. If the moon crashed into the Earth, the result would be disastrous. Jenny is an idiot. ABC's Lost is enjoyable. Jesus has risen. This soup is icky. They can carry any person or tense, and are most easily stated using conjugated forms of the verb "to be." The highest positive identity-type emotion is a passionate positive identification of someone or something as good, great, or ideal. I might call this "faith," believing good things about someone or something. Humanists have faith in humanity. Christians have faith in Christ. Nihilists have faith in nothing except "nothing".
So the three fundamental positive emotions are Faith, Hope, and Love.
http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=1+cor+13
I like that -- faith, hope, and love -- those make a good foundation!
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