Antonio Damasio speaks of Emotions and Feelings

Hello all:
 
NPR (National Public Radio) here in the USA, via its syndicated Diane
Rehm Show, interviewed the renowned Portuguese neurologist Antonio
Damasio this past Wednesday on his latest book "Looking for Spinoza:
Joy, Sorrow, and the Feeling Brain" (which is on the verge of appearing
in bookstores, and already available on-line). The interview was
excellent, and since Damasio makes an interesting distinction (based on
research) between emotions and feelings, the former pertaining to the
body, the latter to the mind or brain, it clearly resonates with many of
our discussion threads. Damasio also discusses shame, as well as the
effect of emotions, feelings, affect on the organism. He states: first
we emote (with the subsequent physiological and organismic sequelae),
then we feel, and what we feel is what has changed in our body.
He further states (based on research) that those who lose the ability to
emote (e.g., neurological damage), are impaired in their capacity to
reason, and that therefore emotion plays a role in reason.
 
The latter half of the program admits callers. When one of these stated
that she works in the field of EP, Damasio responded to her remarks by
mentioning that the last chapter of the book deals with what emotion and
feeling have to do with the notion of spirituality.
 
For those who are interested in listening to the 1-hr audio archive, it
is available (free) at www.wamu.org/dr/index.html
 
Gabrielle
 
**************************
 
Gabrielle Kortsch, MS, CHt
(doctoral candidate)
Florida International University
Dept of Psychology
Miami, FL 33199
USA
 
Out beyond the ideas of right-doing or wrong-doing
there is a field - I'll meet you there. Jelaluddin Rumi
 

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Received on Fri Jan 24 2003 - 16:26:37 GMT