Meditation on the James-Lange theory of emotion
I clicked to this when I first came across it. I remembered being aware of the phenomenon at the age of six: as a game, I was running away from my grandmother, and realised that as I ran I was becoming genuinely frightened, though there was no reason to.
I came up against it again this morning. I discovered that two large spiders had moved into my bath, which I did not wish to share with them.
Now, understand that I do not see myself as afraid of spiders. I have evicted spiders for my daughters at a time when I bribed them to disposed of dead mice, which I could not go near despite their being no threat. At one time I actively encouraged a spider that settled in my kitchen window as it dealt very nicely with flies. I worked out the perfect thing to do with them: get them into a box, cover it, take it out to the shed and liberate them. Spiders are useful members of the household ecology and above all I didn't want to harm them, but I don't want them in the bath; one crawled onto my shoulder once when I was in the bath, and all I did was stand up a bit abruptly, reach for the toothmug, scooped it up and did a lovely kottabos shot into the handbasin.
But things didn't go completely according to plan. I carried out the actions, but afterwards found I was shaking in a way that puzzled me until I thought, "Oh, yes, things change, I must have been scared of them."
Not a new thing. All through my life, from childhood onwards, I have operated very much in James-Lange terms, with a slight twist: I am aware of physiological sensations, then track down what the emotion must be. My mother used to accuse me of being too self analytic, but it wasn't a matter of choice, it's just how things are.
This entry was originally posted at http://sollers.dreamwidth.org/29327.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
I came up against it again this morning. I discovered that two large spiders had moved into my bath, which I did not wish to share with them.
Now, understand that I do not see myself as afraid of spiders. I have evicted spiders for my daughters at a time when I bribed them to disposed of dead mice, which I could not go near despite their being no threat. At one time I actively encouraged a spider that settled in my kitchen window as it dealt very nicely with flies. I worked out the perfect thing to do with them: get them into a box, cover it, take it out to the shed and liberate them. Spiders are useful members of the household ecology and above all I didn't want to harm them, but I don't want them in the bath; one crawled onto my shoulder once when I was in the bath, and all I did was stand up a bit abruptly, reach for the toothmug, scooped it up and did a lovely kottabos shot into the handbasin.
But things didn't go completely according to plan. I carried out the actions, but afterwards found I was shaking in a way that puzzled me until I thought, "Oh, yes, things change, I must have been scared of them."
Not a new thing. All through my life, from childhood onwards, I have operated very much in James-Lange terms, with a slight twist: I am aware of physiological sensations, then track down what the emotion must be. My mother used to accuse me of being too self analytic, but it wasn't a matter of choice, it's just how things are.
This entry was originally posted at http://sollers.dreamwidth.org/29327.html. Please comment there using OpenID.