Yes / Current dominant trends in the biological and psychological sciences tend to put emphasis on the role of the brain, cognition, and consciousness in realising emotional states and attempting to regulate them. In this article, I suggest an alternative approach with the idea that emotions emerge within social relations and give meaning and value to the situations in which we are located. Humans are understood as embodied emotional selves for who thought and emotion are intertwined. However, individuals can get caught in obsessive and compulsive thinking and feeling traps where the self loses touch with its emotions, and because of this also loses contact with the social situation and the ability to skilfully navigate it. In such circumstances, the self gets overwhelmed by emotion and loses its poise in the social setting. I consider Buddhist meditation as a technique through which people can develop a more reflexive emotional self, where reflexivity is not about control of emotion but owning one's feelings and being able to respond more sensitively and skilfully in various situations.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BRADFORD/oai:bradscholars.brad.ac.uk:10454/15963 |
| Date | 20 April 2018 |
| Creators | Burkitt, Ian |
| Source Sets | Bradford Scholars |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Article, Accepted Manuscript |
| Rights | © 2018 Wiley This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Burkitt I (2018) The emotional self: embodiment, reflexivity, and emotion regulation. Social and Personality Psychology Compass. 12(5): e12389, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12389. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving. |
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