The flavour of emotions.

ABSTRACT

Emotions in psychotherapy are considered in the light of contemporary emotion theory, of neuroimaging, of narratives about emotion, and in relation to emotional disorder. One difficulty in comparing these different theories is that the term "emotion" is itself used differently. According to some theories, emotions are discrete conscious experiences, but according to others, a person may have and be influenced by emotions of which they are not aware. "Unconscious" emotions are of particular interest to the psychotherapist. The wide range of happenings that are associated with them are considered, and a general term proposed for them-"emotor". The main point of the paper is to establish that emotors may have an emotional flavour which is capable of inducing an emotion in a person who experiences the emotor, and that this is not the same process as a person reacting emotionally to an emotor. Emotors may acquire their emotional flavour, and their capacity to induce emotions, independent of a subject experiencing the emotion. This, it is argued, is one reason why we may experience emotions not just as reactions, but as given to us by the world. It may also be an explanation for some aesthetic or religious feelings being experienced as both transcendent and real.