Subject: Empowering ALL Students to Succeed and to Thrive
Date: 2019-08-17b
Dear Board of Education,
What is the purpose of education if it is not to provide the tools and training for a successful adult life? And where is success without the joy and passion that signifies mental and physical health and well-being? Can education be called a success if it does not provide the understanding and training of a personal cognitive-emotional system which has evolved for the actualization and maintenance of mental and physical health and well-being? Education should not be confined to developing a student’s cognitive skills without also understanding the importance and significance of their emotional connection to happiness and joy. Cognition, physiology, emotions and consciousness have evolved together as a synergistic team. The nature and effective employment of these synergies should certainly be part of our educational curriculum. And this means teaching and developing the students’ skills and abilities to accentuate joyous cognitive and behavior endeavors for their own – and society’s – health, well-being, and prosperity.
The understanding of emotions that drive the characters of Shakespeare are not the understanding of emotions within a science where emotions have evolved for the health, well-being, and prosperity of your students.
Have teachers’ 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 Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Dickens’s Great Expectations, Poe’s The Raven, and Austen’s Pride and Prejudice – impacted 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.
I am asking you to evaluate your own paradigm of emotions, the very paradigm of emotions that you as educators, are indoctrinating your students with as you teach them how to read and write. You must take responsibility and understand that what began innocently in first grade to learn how to read, write, and understand literature continues within the academic halls of psychology and psychiatry. The emotional paradigm of Shakespeare without a careful introspection of how emotions must have evolved is fostering a society of crime, violence, and suicidal mania. You, as educators must began your own analysis because the psychological academia are only continuing the core beliefs of emotional understanding that you instilled.
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, well-being, and prosperity.
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.
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.
Continual education of the linguistics of emotions found in Shakespeare without teaching the linguistics of emotions found within the science of evolution is a true crime against humanity.
From an evolutionary perspective, there must be a positive correlation between (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.
Imagine what would happen to a person who is drunk and (1) thinks of themselves as strong and capable, but (2) in actuality they are quite confused and clumsy and (3) they feel great and very confident! They perceive themselves as quite capable of driving across town in rush hour traffic. What is their probability survival? (These arguments are developed further in Section 2: “Emotions as an Evolved Biological System” in the attached Symbiotic Psychology book.) We have evolved to be joyous beings. An individual’s mental and physical health depends on their seeking and finding cognitive activities of knowing, namely, perceiving, recognizing, conceiving – which includes imagination and inspiration – and reasoning that feel good. From a biological perspective if it emotionally feels good, it is good
There is a key difference between a new paradigm of “emotions guide cognitive behavior” and current textbook understanding of “cognitive behavior regulates emotions.” Within the construct of “cognition regulates destructive emotional behavior,” it is the intellect which identifies, determines, and defines destructive emotional and biological behavior as well as identifies, determines, and defines the cognitive behavior which causes this destructive emotional behavior. Within the construct of “emotions guide cognitive behavior,” it is the very presence of negative emotions which identifies, determines and defines destructive cognitive and biological behavior. If emotions are the perception of physiological biochemistry, then negative feeling emotions are the indication of very real aberrant and destructive cognitive and biological behavior.
The distinction between emotional regulation and cognitive regulation is critical. Within severe mental illnesses such as psychotic mania or suicidal depression, whether emotions are being regulated or cognition is being regulated can be very consequential, especially with the use of pharmaceuticals. Both the patient and the therapist use emotional feedback as a meaningful measurement and understanding of the cognitive processes being utilized by consciousness. But emotions that are demonized as aberrant, destructive, and so out-of-control that they must be regulated and brought under control, cannot also be used as a trusted feedback mechanism. This mechanism evolved over millions of years for the individual’s health, well-being, and survival. Medications and practices that aim to regulate and control emotions invalidate the very therapeutic process that aims to rely on this mechanism for healing.
To have cognitive-emotional wisdom is to have the cognitive and emotional understandings and abilities to avoid acting from the lower platforms of despair, depression, and anger. Cognitive-emotional wisdom means to have the cognitive tools and agility to move up the emotional staircase and to act from the higher platforms where good feelings of clarity, health and vigor reside. Section 7.0: “Cognitive-Emotional Wisdom” of this book discusses a variety of cognitive-emotional wisdom themes relevant to today’s culture and society. But it is Section 8.2: Cognitive-Emotional Rehabilitation and Strengthening Exercises – a student’s “Superhero Toolkit” – that contains the heart of developing a K-12 curriculum with activities that reinforce the synergies between mind, body, emotions, and consciousness.
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 the linguistic differences between the emotions of Shakespeare and the emotions of science and why these differences must be developed within a school district’s curriculum.
Some of the key word/phrase indicators demonstrating a lack of comprehension that emotions are the perception of biological conditions caused by cognition are: aberrant and destructive emotions, emotional disorder, emotional regulation, emotional addiction, anger management, “control your emotions” and “you are emotionally out of control.” These, as well as depression, emotional trauma, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) need to be used with the understanding that emotions are a perception biological conditions caused by cognitive activities. This construct is further developed in Section 3.0: “Depression: Mental Illness of Mental Injury” of Symbiotic Psychology, the book
The success of our teachers in life – whether they are our parents, teachers and other students in school, religious leaders, bosses at work, or the powerful academia, political, and business leaders who set the stage for our lives – is in their ability to empower us with the skills and abilities to think and to feel good, and to help us move our thought and debate up into the mammalian brain. Here, a ‘what feels good, is good’ mentality can evolve into broader and greater awareness of both short and long-term consequences and decision-making and action can mature into greater complexity and imagination. With such education and personal development, ‘what feels good, is good’ can have a compassionate foundation for existence.
Enclosed is the current revision of Symbiotic Psychology: The Synergy Between Mind, Body, Emotions, and Consciousness. And for an easy assessment by anyone, the book can be downloaded at https://emotional-evolution.com/. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns you may have. This book was written to offer a basic understanding of what is necessary within a K-12 curriculum that empowers ALL people – especially those who are socio-economically disadvantaged – with the tools needed to, not only survive, but thrive in today’s chaotic world of uncertainty, mis-information, and cultural division.
Sincerely,
Sincerely,
Andrew Jackson
https://emotional-evolution.com
https://symbioticpsychology.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)
Emotions and Feelings: Nature’s Biofeedback Mechanism
Emotions and feelings are felt. Good and bad feeling emotions and feelings are the perception, by consciousness, of a biochemical physiology within the body and the brain precipitated by an evolved and nurtured cognitive neural circuitry. Because emotions and feelings are perceptions of an internal state of biology precipitated by cognition, emotions and feelings are a reflection of, and give insights into, the nature of this cognitive behavior. Also, because emotions and feelings are not causal, emotions and feelings are neither destructive nor constructive but rather they are indicators towards the presence of very real destructive and constructive – and causal – cognitive behaviors. Correlations between cognition, healthy biochemical physiology, and good feeling emotions and feelings are a result of millions of years of evolutionary survival for the health and well-being of the individual – as are the correlations between bad feeling emotions and feelings and an unhealthy biology. Now the question is, how are these correlations between cognition, biology, emotions and feelings, and consciousness understood, nurtured, and developed within a society for an individual’s health, wealth, and general well-being through their own successful decision-making and creativity?