Rational Negativism

A Divergent Theory of Emotional Disorder

Phil Roberts, Jr.

FOOTNOTES

While there are obvious similarities, there is a significant difference between lower emotion and pain and pleasure. The occurrence of pain and pleasure is an automatic consequence of sensory information with little if any interpretation necessary. On the other hand, most stimuli of lower emotion are first interpreted by the reasoning agent as satisfying basic criteria. As such, a limited degree or volition is possible, such as by choosing to interpret an apparent insult as not truly intended. Even sexual stimuli are subject to interpretation, as evidenced by individual preferences superimposed upon the basic criteria of sexual orientation. Indeed, it is quite possible that the more sophisticated cognitive functions in man evolved from precisely this type of stimulus discrimination. Even so, once interpreted as a stimulus, the ensuing emotional state is an inevitable consequence, with the only effective means of avoiding lower emotion limited to the decision to attend or avoid the appropriate stimuli. For this reason, pain and pleasure and lower emotion might be collectively referred to as "programmed motivation".
The urgings of sexual arousal are directed toward more complex and involved stereotyped behavior than the general impulses toward or away from stimuli associated with other programmed motivation. In conjunction with its completely nonessential role in maintaining organic integrity, the sensation of being in an altered state of consciousness, conducting behavior which by rational standards might be described as "bizarre" is all too apparent. Because of this, although attitudes toward sexuality are actually learned, they are often more easily learned than unlearned. In other words, at some point in time a particular individual experienced alienation with the arationality of sexuality, and the realization eventually spread throughout society. The standards of the Victorian era perhaps constitute an apex of this realization, while modern attitudes also acknowledge the futility of excessive anxiety or guilt over one's sexual orientation (behavior is volitional, orientation in all probablility is not).
World Almanac Book of Facts, 1978, p. 747.
This statement is less true for individuals living in truly deprived conditions where physical survival is a pressing need. However, much of the behavior commonly associated with biolgical needs actually has a higher emotional component. For example, while a laborer might consider the reason he goes to work at a tedious job every day is primarily to put food on the table and to provide his family with adequate shelter, in truth, most modern societies provide some form of welfare. Thus, his willingness to put up with the tedium of his job (mental pain) is more likely the result of a need for a sense of responsibility for his own life (self-value). Even the responsibility of a family itself is far more involved with higher emotion than with any short-term lower emotional urges (sexual arousal). Long-term commitments of this sort arise more out or a need to avoid loneliness (the feeling that you are not valued or acknowledged by anyone) or feelings of purposelessness. Even the individual who no longer derives any positive satisfaction from family life might continue to honor such commitments to avoid the negative consequences of guilt or loss of approval by friends and relatives (both self-value related).
While physiological factors may contribute to the occurrence of emotional disorder, they should not be allowed to obscure the psychological relationships involved. Since there is indisputable evidence that the reasoning agent is motivated to behave in a self-evaluating manner (although the ego itself determines the criteria), it is only reasonable to presume that it is motivated to think in a self-evaluating manner. Physiological dysfunction could quite possibly affect this natural conation, thereby reducing the capacity of the ego to maintain emotional integrity (self-value). The result of a reduced self-value, albeit from physiological factors, might then reveal itself in the form of emotional disorder. Thus, while the hallucinations of the schizophrenic may indirectly result from chemical imbalances in the brain, they are probably a more immediate consequence of an ego no longer able to function in its role as coordinator of cognitive activity (similar to what occurs in a semi-conscious dream state). Although admittedly a theoretical interpretation, it reveals that the presence of contributing physiological factors does not disprove the possibility that emotional disorder (and its visible effects) always emanates from emotional causes.
Brain damage may also appear to cause emotional disorder. However, consistent with the supposition that emotional disorder emanates from disruption to one's emotional integrity (loss of self-value), it is proposed that the realization of the loss of cognitive function would be a cause of self-devaluation. This might be a direct realization or a realization of no longer being perceived as "normal" by others.
The universality of human egocentrism is not easily confirmed because in many individuals it is not readily apparent. This is due to the fact that human beings in rational societies react in somewhat the same fashion to egocentric behavior as to nonessential aspects of programmed motivation (anger and sexual arousal), that is, acknowledging that human beings have a need for self-value, but regarding as crude and unsophisticated those who openly flaunt it. While this widespread tendency would seem to confirm the arationality of egocentrism it results, paradoxically, in egocentric organisms whose very self-value is often dependent upon concealing this egocentrism, not only from others, but frequently from themselves. As a result, varying degrees of apparent egocentrism in behavior do not actually reflect differing degrees of egocentrism, but only differing degrees of recognition of its arationality. Indeed, it is quite possible that humility, selflessness, etc., are luxuries more readily affordable by an ego relatively secure in its self-significance, while the more obvious egotist may merely require more obvious external support due to emotional insecurity. Negative theory does acknowledge differing degrees of egocentrism, but these are not considered to be directly correlated with varying degrees of obvious egocentric behavior, but rather with the presence or absence of effects commonly referred to as emotional disorder.
It is interesting to note that electrical stimulation of the brain has resulted in total recall in vivid detail of events no longer remembered. This would suggest that the process of memory loss is not the result of physiological limitations, but a deliberate intent on the part of nature to limit the amount of data retained on a high level of consciousness. In other words, negative events and most of the data of experience in general can be reduced simply by the ego's traveling away from them in time.

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws