Boriana

A dictionary definition says that emotion is a mental or physical reaction (e.g. anger, fear, joy) marked by strong feeling and often physiological changes that prepare the body for immediate vigorous action. James adds important revelations about the nature of our emotions. Many views about their controllability have been expressed, at one extreme being the deterministic position that we are already predestined and we have no control on our lives whatsoever and thus - neither on our emotions. James argues that in their essence emotions are controllable. By elucidating the ontological existence of emotions I am going to explain how, by what methods can we control the emotions to limiting, expanding, eliminating and evoking them.

In order something to be controlled one has to know its origin and genesis. Where do emotions originate, how are they produced and what are they actually is the first question that I am going to explore. A common place view on emotions states that they are mental events, evolved in the mind that produce a particular physical reaction which is considered a manifestation of the emotion. The physical reaction is what is observed by the people surrounding the person who experiences the emotion. The physical reaction is not part of the emotion, though, it is simply a consequence of the feeling ocurring in the mind of the person that has it. The emotion itself is felt only and uniquely by the person in whose mind it originated. All physical manifestations - external and internal are simply reactions, they are not emotions themselves, one reason for which is that they are absolutely contingent.

"If we fancy some strong emotion, and then try to abstract from our consciousness of it all the feelings of its bodily symptoms, we find nothing left behind, no 'mind-stuff' out of which the emotion can be constituted, and that a cold and neutral state of intellectual perception is all that remains." For example John hears on the news that a hurracane killed 10 people in his town. Unless he experiences bodily changes - crying, stiff throat, chemicals in the chest - he does not feel an emotion, but simply obtains knowledge of a tragic event which is stored in his memory and produces no more mental moods than the learning of the formula that 2+2=4. If there is no manifestation of an emotion than there is no emotion either, because the emotion itself is the crying, the stiff throat, the chemicals in the chest.

Once clear with what emotions actually are, now we can proceed to see how can they be controlled. Because of their exclusive nature of physical changes in the body that produce mental moods, one can infer that one can control their intensity through limiting or expanding their manifestations. James gives a list of commonplace examples that most people would agree with and that verify his words: "every one knows how panic is increased by flight and how the giving way to symptoms of grief and anger increases those passions themselves;...refuse to express a passion and it dies;...count ten before venting your anger, and its occasion seems ridiculous;...whistling to keep up courage is no more mere figure of speech... ." The idea that one can control one's emotions, if once seemed unlikely, now is more than plausible for everyone has experienced at least one of the situations mentioned by James.

However, our abilities to regulate our emotions do not end with the mere controlling of their intensity but extend further to actually being capable of creating and changing them. A possible way of doing that would be by artificially simulating some kind of emotion. James's suggestion is that if one wants, for example, to become in a good mood, one needs only to start laughing, at first artificially, and then the production of smile and laughter will consequently result in inflicting mental moods corresponding to the physical behaviour. Theoretically, this suggestion is perfectly consistent with his idea about the essence of emotions, because, according to it, mental moods evolve from physical changes. Practically, it is also true, as stated by the physiognomist Campanella: I have often observed that, on mimicking the looks and gestures of angry, or placid, or frightened, or daring men, I have involuntarily found my mind turned into that passion whose appearance I strove to immitate; nay I am convinced it is hard to avoid it, though one strove to separate the passion from its corresponding gestures". According to this quote, it is not only possible to change one's emotions by imitating physical actions matching other emotions, but it is hard not to obtain the mental mood once the bodily gestures are performed. According to professor Bain, cited also by James, this phenomenon has its physical explanation too: "We find that a feeble [emotional] wave is suspended inwardly by being arrested outwardly; the currents of the brain and the agitation of the centers die away if the external vent is resisted at every point". With this the theory of James about the controlability of one's emotions has been proven in two ways: pratically, by commonplace examples and by observations, and theoretically, by a psychological theory.

Another way of inflicting emotions, James suggests, is through imagination. Thinking about the physical symptoms of an emotion produce the emotion itself. Imagining the caresses of one's spouse, for example, would invoke love and desire. In this case it is creating the cause of the emotion that makes it controllable, for as long as we can imagine particular situations that if real these situations would cause emotions, and if fictonal, they can produce same or similar kind of emotion.

Forth way of influencing one's emotions mentioned by James is by saying it out, or just expressing it, thus letting the tension out. James, however, does not agree with this suggestion because, he says, during the outburst the emotion is always felt, so it is not really influencing it in any way but just letting it go. But there are different ways of expressing the emotion. A very efficacious approach is through saying it. Simply telling to five people "I am angry" or writing it in a diary weekens the intensity of the emotion, because it is sharing it with others and transmitting the responsibility of feeling angry that make one loosen and calm down. This way any spontaneous actions such as punching the wall and shouting are reduced to a simple saying "I am angry" which causes little or no harm to the person having the emotion and his surrounding. The emotion is felt but in a much lesser extent and for much shorter lasting.

James suggests three ways of performing control over one's emotions, which is an important task, for people often wish they could govern their feelings. James's theory is both fundamentaly new (I am sad because I cry) and familiar to people through the trivial examples that he gives. I personally, was impressed by the idea of actually changing the emotions from grief to happiness. And I tried it myself. Surprisingly for me, but not surprising to the theory I was able in majority of cases to make myself happy by simply starting to laugh at anything that might as well not have been laughable. The results were positive and consistent with the theory. The idea that people can control their emotions is cruicial in human relationships and communication. The topic tends more to psycology than to philosophy, but the fact that the control over emotions is an important suggestion, and because describing the essence of emotions is a purely philosophical task I was convinced to write this paper, ending with the assertion that emotions are controllable.