Is there such a thing as a 'bad' emotion

[Evalis]

There are a number of pshycology books (and the populace in general) that will claim that no emotion is bad, it's just how the person reacts to it. I'm not entirely certain I agree.. I am however, not willing to simply leap at a conclusion without a set of evidence or rational explanation, so I am going to attempt to list all of the emotions that I am aware, and pick some of them apart.

Emotional List:

Anger
Jealously
Fear
Love
Hatred
Lonliness
Passion
Lust
Happiness
Shame

Okay this is the short list. I will come back and add some more if they come to me. During that time, if someone wants to send a reply with a few more, I can potentially update them on this list. Once the list appears completed I will then start making an analysis of each one. Most of the emotions were pulled from here: To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. Many of these did not appear to fit the bill of 'emotion' and were left out.

[Jezebel]

Hmm, what's your criteria for determining which ones are emotions?

[Evalis]

Words that describe the feeling itself rather than the reaction to it. Irritability for example is not an emotion.. it is the reaction to another emotion. Modesty is not an emotion, it is an outwards expression. I have also attempted to remove those emotions that were only different semantacly - EI: Envy & Jealously are the very same.

I may have missed a few or misinterpreted somewhere.. thats why I'm just waiting a bit for a response before I dive into anything.

[Evalis]

Due to the fact that I am incredibly bored, and no one has refuted my claim to these being the existing emotions, I will continue by listing the symptoms of each

Potential Symptoms

Anger
Increased Blood Pressure, Tensed Muscles
Headaches, Forgetfulness, Lack of Concentration
Increased Irritability, Social Withdrawal, Aggressive Behavior
Difficulty Sleeping, Change in Eating Habits

Jealously (Removed)

Fear
Shock/Numbness, Weak Muscles, Hollow Stomach, Increased Heart Rate
Hallucinations, Lack of Concentration, Depersonalization
Social Withdrawal, Anxiety, Guilt, Helplessness
Difficulty Sleeping, Change in Eating Habits

... Apparently I'm too bored to even continue.. Maybe I'll come back later ;P. Darned.. forced to write out stuff all out once =(

[Tarrick]

There are a number of psychology books (and the populace in general) that will claim that no emotion is bad, it's just how the person reacts to it.


Well there are two ways to go about it, and one of them is to the accept that the reaction is the key. Also you can say that there are light and dark sides of emotions.


Emotional List:

Anger - Hate: Anger is not necessarily bad. You can react badly because of it, but the emotion itself lends itself in a way to color things that are repugnant to you and should be avoided/eliminated. Hate is more irrational and feverish, in my opinion. You can be angry at someone someone you care for because of something they did. Hate is something much more vicious and harder to remove.

Desire/Drive - Jealousy: We all have dreams, desires and a drive to achieve them. Jealousy often comes in response to our lack of completing these and seeing others who have completed what we are striving for.

Fear - Cowardice: Fear is very healthy thing, let me tell you. Fear is nature's little string around your finger that tries to keep you out of trouble. However, we often have to walk through the Jaws of Oblivion, or so it seems. However, cowardice is something akin to a overdeveloped sense of self preservation and desire to avoid hardship. As much as hardship sucks, it's our willingness to see it through that improves us. Sometimes.

Love - Lust: Love. The most confusing emotion that comes in as many flavors as people we know. But, short version: Love is desire we have to reach out and help others and give to them so that their lives may be better. Lust/Self-love is a desire for our needs to be met on our terms. Or something like that.

Loneliness - Antisocial: Feeling loneliness just means that you detached and apart from others that care about, or a lack of them altogether. It's not something that's bad, it's just a feeling that's telling you you need to reach out to others and a desire for a response. Being antisocial is when you feel the need to shut others out. Now, having your own, private time is something that everyone needs at some point(s). However, when you keep yourself from others to the point where you go emotionally numb, it goes far beyond healthy.

Passion - 'dark' Passion: Passion is just drive or desire to see something through or to do something (or whatever :P). However, it can be taken to the point where it overrides rationality, common sense and reason.

Happiness: Happiness is the feeling of being pleased with something. Being pleased with things that good is good. You all can logically extrapolate from here on out.

Shame: You screwed up, and you feel it. Irrational shame, or taking it too far and being unwilling to forgive yourself is bad. However, it can be a good lesson if you deserve it.

[Rei]

It sounds like you are trying to talk about the 7 deadly sins...

Anger
Lust
Sloth
Pride
Envy
Gluttony
Greed

[The Rose]

I think there are bad emotions.
Some emotions make me feel BAD.
Some emotions make me feel GOOD.

[Tarrick]

I think there are bad emotions.
Some emotions make me feel BAD.
Some emotions make me feel GOOD.

Occam's Razor for the win?

I think so.

[qwerty]

There is a contradictory argument that for a good emotion to be possible we must have a comparison to see why it is good. Hence there is no good without bad which means that bad emotions are in essence the catalyst for all goodness.

Myself I've always embraced bad emotions because although they suck at the time they drive you. In essence think of a bad emotion being comparable to death. We will all die as we will all experience something bad at one stage in our life, and this fear of death and fear of feeling bad pushes us to rise in every single aspect of our lives to achieve complete goodness.

I guess that's how people are, we move forward because we are afraid. Truly we are a sorry bunch who inflict pain to drive forward.

[StJimmy]

To quote the Dead Kennedys: Your emotions make you a monster.

[Tarrick]

There is a contradictory argument that for a good emotion to be possible we must have a comparison to see why it is good. Hence there is no good without bad which means that bad emotions are in essence the catalyst for all goodness.



I wouldn't say they were catalysts. Catalysts are the instigators of things. They are more like the dark side or an inversion of the good side.

Say you have something that good, but you change it's intended focus, say of love. If you love someone (in a healthy manner that is), that's a good right? Now how about if you changed that focus from someone else to yourself? I'm not saying that liking yourself is bad, but to direct that kind of emotion to yourself instead of others is not quite right and can lead to arrogance, and self-centeredness.

[qwerty]

There is a contradictory argument that for a good emotion to be possible we must have a comparison to see why it is good. Hence there is no good without bad which means that bad emotions are in essence the catalyst for all goodness.



I wouldn't say they were catalysts. Catalysts are the instigators of things. They are more like the dark side or an inversion of the good side.

Say you have something that good, but you change it's intended focus, say of love. If you love someone (in a healthy manner that is), that's a good right? Now how about if you changed that focus from someone else to yourself? I'm not saying that liking yourself is bad, but to direct that kind of emotion to yourself instead of others is not quite right and can lead to arrogance, and self-centeredness.

Exactly catalysts are the instigators of things. Why do we love? Because we desire not be lonely? Because nature instinctively tells us we are nothing without a mate and offspring? The fear of losing our blood line drives us to pursue the love!

You have a point in saying that not all bad things create goodness, however I still hold that goodness comes from the bad emotions pushing us to change. And I guess in some weird way causality does drive happiness from badness, If I love myself then I may become self-centered, and from being self centered I may drive away my friends, and from driving away my friends I become lonely, and at that point I change and begin to radiate my love to everyone around and in turn reset the cycle.

An Example:
If I told you that you were immortal and took away your ability to mate, then chaos follows - attraction between men and women goes haywire, sure there would be sex as of the enjoyment factor but you'd find a break down in the way the world works. Although people say that they will love their partner forever in an infinite time frame partners would grow apart as other human instincts kick in such as curiosity and even then with curiosity after an infinite time people would grow bored of expanding themselves. At which point the way in which humans treat emotions and themselves becomes an insanely interesting question to forecast and myself I won't go down the path of forecasting it.
A great example of this what if is in To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. (Asimov's The Last Question). Throughout the story you notice how human emotion begins to be lost and replaced with curiosity and then with lackluster.

Quick breakdown:
The bad emotion of fear drives the human race to build a super computer to keep them alive
The bad emotion of fear drives the human race to continuously over time ask and try to find out if the universe will die
These bad emotions drive the recreation of the universe at the expense of the collective human race so they may begin anew.

[hopscotch]

I think the goodness or badness attributed to emotions depends on the context.

For example, if one feels fear when walking down the street because of the possibility of getting hit by a car, that's negative (and irrational, unless you live in Toronto or NYC).

If you feel fear because there is a grizzly bear staring you in the eye, that's positive. It will prompt the fight or flight response (hopefully the latter, unless you're packing ammo) which will take you out of harm's way.

In essence, if there's a real, rational reason to feel an emotion, I consider it good. If it's completely unfounded or excessive, it's bad.

Most people in my acquaintance think anger is the worst emotion and should be bottled up inside because it makes others uncomfortable. I disagree; a build-up of anger will have unhealthy consequences down the line. However, I'm not about to advocate randomly punching someone because they did something that angered you. There are better ways to deal.

[blueback]

I've got a theory that applies here. Emotions are genetic memory.

Let me expand on that. First, you have to accept that we are products of evolution. If you assume that we were created in our present form the theory doesn't work.

Okay, so evolution favors diversity because that way enough members of a species will live through the unexpected to continue the tree. Evolution also favors those who survive and reproduce; for obvious reasons. The interesting thing about the evolutionary process is that it functions without rational direction. In fact, the capacity for rational thought was only developed through the evolutionary process.

So, when our ancestors first began to think rationaly, they did so only in addition to the way they thought before. If you look at a cross section of the brain the upgrade process is obvious. Starting from the base of the spine, the regions of the brain gradually become less necessary. To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. Which means that our ancestors had to make it through a lot of challenges without the aid of rational thought.

For example, jealousy. When you think about jealousy in the context of a modern relationship it doesn't make much sense. People really aren't limited in their choice of potential mates. If a current mate isn't fully committed they can simply cut their ties to the cheater and move on. That hasn't always been the case, though. For the vast majority of our evolutionary experience we were severely limited in our choice of mates. We pretty much had the women in our tribe and maybe one or two others, not billions. Which means that the ability to reproduce when the options for doing so are limited was selected for. But, the ability was pre-rational.

The first "human" who had to deal with a cheating mate didn't have the benefit of an imagination. They had to react instinctively simply because that's all they had. Since there is a range of instinctive reactions, some ancestors ignored it, and some immediately acted to stop it in whatever way possible. Who do you think was more likely to pass on their genes?

Over many generations our ancestors experienced the same situation. Since those who were instincively compelled to stop their mate from straying tended to pass on their genes more often, that compulsion became powerful and wide-spread. Now that we have the ability to objectively evaluate our body's instinctive reaction to stimulus, we call it "emotion." It's exactly the same as the way our hair stands on end. Back when we had full fur coats, it was beneficial to fluff them for insulation when it got cold. Since there was never any drawback to fluffing hair that hardly exists it never got selected out. We have little muscles attached to each follicle and they contract when the brain registers the sensation "cold." We also have little "emotion muscles" that react when our brain registers "cheater." Thus, emotions are evolution's way of setting us up for success (on average).