There can be no transforming of darkness into light and of apathy into movement without emotion. - Carl Jung
A leading psychiatric reference defines emotion as "a complex feeling state with psychic, somatic and behavioral components that is related to affect - the observable expression and outward manifestations of the feeling states - and mood - the pervasive and sustained subjectively experienced feeling state" (Kaplan & Sadock, 1991, p. 214). Such a clinical phraseology, however, does not reveal the decades, even centuries, of professional debate, from the deliberations of ancient philosophers to the arguments of modern psychologists, which has centered around the classification, etiology and ultimately the management of this enigma. From Freud's cathartic abreaction to Ellis' rational controlling to Rogers' nonjudgemental acceptance, therapists and their patients have struggled to decipher and regulate the mysterious realm of human emotion.
The mere act of attempting to define the conundrum of human emotion is virtually a paradox in and of itself. Ornstein (1972) in his work with the differing modes of consciousness and perception associated with the two sides of the brain, identified the left side of the brain as the "seat of reason" responsible for the faculty of language, logic and analytical thinking, and the right side of the brain as the "seat of passion" responsible for intuition, holistic perception and feeling. He further asserted that each side of the brain processes information, experience and sensation quite differently (Ornstein, 1972). It is not surprising then, that squeezing a right brain experience into a left-brain schema feels somewhat like forcing a square peg into a round hole - eventually it may get pushed through, but the edges will have been sanded down a bit.
The Classification of Emotion
Calhoun and Solomon (1984) identify five models drawing from the theories of philosophers and psychologists which focus on defining and classifying the phenomena of emotion. Included in their characterization are
I) Sensation Theories - focusing on the feel or experience of emotion
II) Physiological Theories - focusing on the mental and physical agitation, excitement and arousal which accompany emotional experiences
III) Behavioral Theories - focusing on observable manifestations and behaviors which express emotions
IV) Evaluative Theories - focusing on emotions as expressions of beliefs and value judgments
V) Cognitive Theories - focusing on emotions as related to interpretive cognitions
Each of these separate orientations seems to argue for a rather one-dimensional perspective of this complex phenomena.
And so, the mystery remains. What is an emotion? Perhaps each of the philosophers, scholars and poets who has debated this question over the centuries has, like the old adage of the five blind men who set out to describe the elephant, captured a piece of this enigma - a necessary but not sufficient piece. Perhaps Blaise Pascal said it best, "The heart has its reasons, which reason does not know." Perhaps the very mystery of emotion best captures its essence.
References
Calhoun, C. & Solomon, R. (1984). What is an emotion? - Classic Readings in Philosophical Psychology. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Kaplan, H. I. & Sadock, B. J. (1991). Synopsis of Psychiatry, 6e - Behavioral Sciences & Clinical Psychiatry. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins.
Ornstein, R. E. (1972). The Psychology of Consciousness. New York, NY: Viking Press.