Any attempt to understand and affect the internal human environment must be taken with an understanding of the changing biochemical conditions of that environment. Emotions, within a different paradigm, may just be the indicator needed by the general public to (1) interpret this vast and complex internal environment of changing biochemical conditions and for (2) understanding and guiding their own cognitive and physical behavior towards their own health and well-being.
Dear Researchers,
Emotions, one of the foundational pillars of psychological theory, are commonly conceived as aberrant and destructive forces which drive biological changes. This letter is an introduction to a new perspective which shows (1) this is a misconception of emotions and (2) a corrected representation of emotions reveals their evolved biological role in the maintenance of individual health and well-being.
I am writing to you because I believe there is an important connection between linguistics and current misrepresentations of the nature of cognition and emotions and their biology within modern psychological and psychiatric theory that is also impacts the study and practice of internal medicine.
Have English speaking researchers’ core beliefs of emotions – which may have been linguistically molded from childhood through family interactions and in later years through reading literary works such as Dickens’s Great Expectations, Poe’s The Raven, and Austen’s Pride and Prejudice – impacted their current understanding and scientific research about emotions – and cognition?
A shared cultural and linguistic development of core beliefs and conceptual understandings about emotions is required for young students to comprehend and follow the emotional twists and turns within these popular English literary works. As students mature and are introduced to the more advanced works of William Shakespeare and others, comprehension is even more dependent upon prior assimilation of cultural and linguistic paradigms. Conceptions of emotions are further reinforced by the logic and reason applied in today’s scientific literature, research, and discussions about emotions.
According to current psychological theory, destructive and aberrant emotions must be managed because of emotions’ influence upon biology. The development of emotional intrigue as found within the interplay of literary characters aligns with the paradigm of emotions as expounded in today’s psychological theories. Many literary plots are driven by the characters’ mismanagement of their emotions or are even controlled and driven by their emotions of the moment.
The basic belief in emotional management is the foundation of Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) where cognitive activities are employed to manage emotions. Congruently, mental illnesses such as depression have identifiable biochemical and neurological signatures where pharmaceuticals are incorporated into CBT practices to aid in emotional management.
Does linguistic development and associated ideas about emotions lead to a cultural research bias within psychological and emotional experimentation because these basic emotional ideas and beliefs, which have been ingrained from childhood, are now coloring the foundation of modern psychology?
I am proposing a different emotional paradigm from that which I have just described above. My question to you is: “how does existing emotional ideology as described above, and the resultant linguistic understanding of emotions, impede one’s understanding and comprehension of an alternative paradigm, which is similarly developed through scientific principles and logic but which has a different cultural and linguistic basis for understanding?” The following is a brief presentation of an alternative understanding of emotions.
From an evolutionary perspective, there must be a positive correlation between the neural networks that activate (1) a cognitive awareness of strength, vigor and well-being, (2) an actualization of a physiology of strength, vigor and well-being, and (3) the neural networks associated with the emotions of pleasure. Biochemistry, both at the molecular level and at the neural network level, must sustain the correlations between (1) the cognitive knowing of, (2) the actualization of, and (3) the feeling of strength, vigor and well-being as well as (4) consciousness’s perception of good feeling emotions. Simply put, if these correlations did not exist in this way, a being would have a low probability of survival. (I further develop this argument in my attached document: Symbiotic Psychology: The Synergy Between Mind, Body, Emotions, and Consciousness.)
Within both paradigms, emotions are perceived – they are a perception of biological conditions – but within this alternative paradigm, emotions are not causing the biological condition. A person cannot have an emotional reaction to an event without first having cognitive awareness and recognition of the event. Cognition deals with the processes of knowing, namely, perceiving, recognizing, conceiving – which includes imagination and inspiration – and reasoning. It is these cognitive activities which change physiological biochemistry and which consciousness subsequently becomes aware of through emotional perception. Awareness of emotions is in itself a cognitive activity, which can further drive neurological activity, thus causing a feedback loop similar to the reverberation effects of a microphone too close to a speaker. But it is still cognition which drives biology, not emotions, and therefore it is these cognitive activities that must be managed, not emotions. Emotions have evolved as a feedback mechanism to guide cognition for the biological health and well-being of the individual.
Emotional awareness obtained through specialized neural circuits provides feedback about how cognitive processes need to be further utilized before any internal cognitive deliberations can be properly concluded and any decisions made. That is, because of the evolved correlative relationships between cognition, physiological biochemistry and emotions, consciousness is wired to seek cognitive activities that stimulate the emotional neurocircuitry of feeling good – which correlate to a physiological biochemistry of strength, vigor and well-being. Conversely, any lingering negative emotional awareness correlates with a weakened physiological biochemistry and the need for further cognitive deliberations. Ignorance of these evolved correlations, either consciously or subconsciously, would tend to lead to an individual’s demise.
Science has a moral and ethical responsibility to question, explore and reveal reality’s true nature. Contrary to modern psychological beliefs in aberrant and destructive emotions, I propose that it is cognitive behavior that changes the body’s physiological biochemistry which consciousness is then perceiving as emotions. Emotions don’t change the body’s biology as modern psychology currently professes and as such emotions cannot be aberrant and destructive. Rather, emotions are indicative of aberrant and destructive cognitive behavior. Emotions are consciousness’s perception of biological changes precipitated by cognition. Rather than emotional management, I speak of cognitive and behavior management through the awareness of emotional feedback.
The significance of this paradigm shift can be further realized within today’s psychological and pharmaceutical therapy. If emotions are demonized as aberrant and destructive within an emotional disorder, how can a patient confidently utilize emotions to guide cognitive and physical behavior? If pharmaceutical therapy targets presumed emotional aberrations, the very evolved nature of emotions to guide cognition is sabotaged. Emotional regulation demonstrates a lack of understanding of how emotions have necessarily evolved for the survival and thriving of our species.
I wrote Symbiotic Psychology: The Synergy Between Mind, Body, Emotions, and Consciousness so people would understand that there are other answers to their emotional turmoil that modern psychology has failed to understand. My hope is that as you comprehend my words, current illusions about emotions will be lifted and you will understand emotions’ scientific significance through your own personal reflection and thereby understand any possible dogmatic bias of emotions that exists within scientific research and documentation as well as within any applied psychological and pharmaceutical therapy.
I am interested in how the researchers within your department might resolve emotions’ reconstruction away from an aberrant and destructive linguistic paradigm – and into a paradigm of personal cognitive and behavior guidance for the mental and physical health and well-being of an individual – within their research, discussions, literary publications and within any Evidence Based Interventions (EBI) based on a cognitive-emotional correlation.
Since I began voicing my concerns over erroneous psychological and pharmaceutical therapeutic methodologies, over a million (MILLION) Americans have committed suicide, millions of other people have been put in incarcerating conditions that only amplify their psychological injuries, and mass shootings continue with no review of the psychological environments fostering all of these atrocities. Lack of true academic questioning and review of psychological and pharmaceutical therapeutic practices is a true crime against humanity.
I have attached the current revision of Symbiotic Psychology: The Synergy Between Mind, Body, Emotions, and Consciousness below. (PDF, 188 pages) And for an easy assessment by your students, the book can be downloaded at https://emotional-evolution.com/. I have also attached a chapter outline for a quick review of the material.
Sincerely,
Andrew Jackson
https://emotional-evolution.com/
Post Script:
“There is a danger of medications masking destructive cognitive behaviors that normally are exposed through erratic, abnormal, and convoluted emotional feedback. If these emotional reflections of aberrant mental and physical behaviors are ignored or camouflaged with pharmaceuticals and if irregular cognitive behavior is left unaddressed without proper psychological counseling and therapy, cognition may fester unabated and create a myopic vortex of circular mental and physical behaviors. This psychosis can break out with disastrous consequences to the patient and to others, who may become characters in a manically-conceived tragedy played out in real life.”
(ref: Jackson, A., 2019. Symbiotic Psychology: The Synergy Between Mind, Body, Emotions, and Consciousness. Section 6.2 Masking Neurological Processes)