Why does emotion make us stupid?

Discussion in 'Human Science' started by John J. Bannan, Jul 11, 2007.

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  1. Grantywanty

    Grantywanty Registered Senior Member

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    I loved all of this. I think you are also writing in and around the idea of intuition, which we generally use is not so life threatening situations, but for me is not a rational function, however much it is not irrational. And solutions can be grasped, rather than trying to get the logical dominos to fall in a line over and over. No middlemen.
     
    Grantywanty, Jul 12, 2007
    #21

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  3. granpa

    granpa Registered Senior Member

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    reason and emotions dont contradict one another.

    our 'emotions', if that is the right word, determine our goals in life. what we enjoy or dont enjoy doing. reason is used to determine 'how' we accomplish those goals. there is no real contradiction between emotions and reason.
     
    granpa, Jul 30, 2007
    #22

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  5. Enmos

    Enmos Valued Senior Member

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    You dont exactly need a lot of brainpower to get the hell away from that big bear thats eyeing you from the bushes...

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    What you do need in that case is fast reflexes and a bit of extra power, and that is what adrenaline provides.

    Extrapolate to other 'emotions'.
     
    Enmos, Jul 30, 2007
    #23

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  7. francois

    francois Schwat? Registered Senior Member

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    And what are emotions produced by?
     
    francois, Jul 30, 2007
    #24
  8. Enmos

    Enmos Valued Senior Member

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    The limbic system.

    The putative structures that lie in it are involved in emotion, motivation, and emotional association with memory.
    It operates by influencing the endocrine system and the autonomic nervous system.

    The endocrine system is an integrated system of organs which involve the release of extracellular signaling molecules known as hormones.

    The sympathetic nervous system (which is part of the autonomous nervous system) regulates the following things:
    - Diverts blood flow away from the gastro-intestinal (GI) tract and skin via vasoconstriction.
    - Blood flow to skeletal muscles, the lung is not only maintained, but enhanced (by as much as 1200%, in the case of skeletal muscles).
    - Dilates bronchioles of the lung, which allows for greater alveolar oxygen exchange.
    - Increases heart rate and the contractility of cardiac cells (myocytes), thereby providing a mechanism for the enhanced blood flow to skeletal muscles.
    - Dilates pupils and relaxes the lens, allowing more light to enter the eye.
     
    Last edited: Jul 31, 2007
    Enmos, Jul 30, 2007
    #25
  9. Grantywanty

    Grantywanty Registered Senior Member

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    Of course the limbic system is in a constant feedback system with the entire nervous system and endocrine systems. This of course puts it in a complicated relationship with everything in the body (not to speak of the environment). Emotions are a body global phenomenon.
     
    Grantywanty, Jul 31, 2007
    #26
  10. Enmos

    Enmos Valued Senior Member

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    Yes, as i explained.. are you confirming ?
     
    Enmos, Jul 31, 2007
    #27
  11. Fraggle Rocker

    Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    It's the other way around. Emotions, like other instincts, are processed in our primitive vertebrate midbrain. Humans alone have the massive forebrain that allows us to routinely override instincts with reasoned and learned behavior, to perform feats that do not satisfy our emotions or even disappoint them. So rather than saying, "Emotions make us stupid," it's a more accurate model of our psychology to say, "Our forebrains make us smart, but they are not always able to override our emotions."
    Indeed. Emotions are one type of instinct, one we can often feel somatically because of the chemicals that are pumped into our bloodstream during the process. Another type of instinct that plays a key role in the psychological model is archetypes: motifs that occur in nearly all human cultures in nearly all eras. Archetypes are more subtle and are not felt physically. In fact we may regard them as learned, since they are passed down, reinforced and embellished from each generation to the next. But their independent and universal appearance in the "collective unconscious" of human communities--as shown by our dreams--identifies them as hard-wired synapses we were born with. Like emotions, they may have been survival traits at one time, or they may be random mutations that were passed through a genetic bottleneck.
     
    Fraggle Rocker, Jul 31, 2007
    #28
  12. Yorda

    Yorda Registered Senior Member

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    thoughts. and thoughts are produced by you, consciousness.
     
    Yorda, Aug 2, 2007
    #29
  13. Grantywanty

    Grantywanty Registered Senior Member

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    I thought it was pretty clear where I was disagreeing. You were answering the question what are emotions produced by? You answered the limbic system. But this is just isolating one organ sytem or structure from a much more global process. I don't think you can say that emotions are produced, caused by or are really from any single part of that global process. Candace Pert's Molecules of Emotions makes even stronger claims about emotions being much more widely spread and produced in the brain, let alone one portion of the brain. I think we have a habit of trying to find the single organ that is the boss of certain processes. This habit causes less problems with some functions, but knowledge about something as complicated as emotions is done a disservice by that habit.
     
    Last edited: Aug 6, 2007
    Grantywanty, Aug 6, 2007
    #30
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