Complaining

[merlekitty]

Something that made me curious in recent days... why do humans complain? Is it something that human beings do? There seem to be two types of complaints that I'm aware of. The complaining because you want something done and the complaining because it makes you feel better. I'm pretty certain every living thing does the former, I'm more curious

Comments

[fromherashes]

I think that you've lumped two or three kinds of complaining all under the same heading of "complaining to feel better

[merlekitty]

That makes more sense... I'm sure everyone does it and I know I do it from time to time, I was just wondering about the... evolutionary? nature of it? Are humans able to comprehend the sense of self which animals do not, which is why we have a mental "release" such as complaining?

[nothri]

There is evidence that emotions and conscious thought end up being at odds with each other. In, say, a cat, the level of awareness is fairly simplistic, and emotions serve the function they were meant to- they create an instinct that the cat responds to in a reasonable time frame- lash out if something angers you, cuddle something that pleases you, so on. Their emotions don't get dwelled upon for long stretches of time. Human beings, with more complex minds and longer memories, have a harder time of it. Whereas, say, something that makes you angry would be dealt with and forgotten as an animal, a human being is capable through his complex thinking of carrying that anger with him through long stretches. This can be a problem- emotions do have biological components, after all- in this case, blood might flow faster, adrenaline might pump, breath might quicken....so on. The emotion is basically saying to the body "I'm angry! I need you to do this!", and in a cat this is perfectly fine, it gets what it needs when it needs it and doesn't

[boxie]

hehe.. you reminded me why I hadn't posted in a while. It always seems I'm more prepared to vent than to say things are going ok