Feeling (psychology)

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Feeling is a psychological term that serves as a generic term for a wide variety of psychological experiences and reactions, such as a. Fear , anger , comedy , irony as well as pity , jealousy , fear , joy and love that can (potentially) be described and thus also made verbal . Although there are many different neurophysiological approaches to measuring emotions, these cannot be assumed to be uniformly or individually valid. This in turn suggests the interpretation of feelings as individual or subjective qualities of consciousness or ego states. Feelings are the product of processing stimuli that originate in our sense organs. They convey a picture of the world around us, but also of processes in our own body. Feelings are not only an expression of external facts, but also of our own judgment .

The sensitive one ( M. Blay , c. 1910).

Feeling, mind, affect, emotion

The term feeling is mostly used synonymously with the older term mind . The terms affect , feeling, emotion are defined and used both in common parlance and by the various authors, in part coincidentally and differently. There is agreement that almost all feelings are about organ functions that are controlled by the autonomic nervous system . The James Lange theory suggests a distinction between feeling and emotion . William James writes: "We are sad because we cry, angry because we strike, we are afraid because we tremble." The motor reactions of crying, slamming, trembling should be according to the Latin origin of the word "emotion" from movere = move as emotions to be construed as a purely sensory experience of being sad, anger and fear should be called a sense perception. Based on the meaning of the word, one should also ask about the delimitation from the concept of emotion.

Etymological word groupings

The origin of the word feel is unclear. There is a relationship with Engl. to feel . The basic meaning is probably "to touch". It has been applied to all physical and, in German, since the 18th century, also to emotional feelings. Therefore, originally, feeling is understood to be the sense of touch and the resulting emotional mood (17th century). A similar word formation as Ge feeling is the word Ge taste that but from a different sensory modality is formed. Here, too, there is a transferred meaning into the aesthetic and cultural ( taste as a humanistic value), cf. In addition, the formal similar word formations such as auditory sense , visual sense with the prefix overall as a collective term ; see. Mountain - mountains / bush - bushes . Since sensory impressions can only convey excerpts from the physical conditions, each sensory modality also has a specific psychological quality, cf. → abstraction theory .

In a comparative language context, the change in meaning from German "tasten" to English also appears interesting . to taste = "taste, taste, try, enjoy, experience", and English tasteful = "tasteful". Probably another stem of the word is the ancient Greek πάσχω [pas-cho] = 1) “receive an impression, experience, experience, meet me, happen to me, meet me, I feel good, I do it, it reminds me, I close Courage, I am in the mood, desire ”; 2) in the bad sense: “to experience something (bad), to suffer, to endure, to endure, to suffer, to toil”; 3) in the good sense: “Suffering or receiving good, feeling good, enjoying benefits, reaping rewards, receiving services”. In Latin, the verb pati = "suffer" should be mentioned in the same context. The ancient Greek word clearly expresses the ego quality of the respective impressions and experiences, as does the German verb feel . In addition, the active and passive feelings are included in the meaning of πάσχω.

Emotional roller coaster: The Roller Coaster Ride to Hurst / Shepard

Psychologists know the emotional phases that those affected go through with varying degrees of difficulty, also as a roller coaster ride - a roller coaster ride of emotions, depending on how many efforts and defeats follow.

Interestingly, these phases are typical for all trauma: whether heartache, the loss of a loved one or the job - the emotional ride is almost always the same.

Of course, that doesn't make it any better for those affected, and there is no simple recipe for avoiding these emotional phases either. But they can at least be softened in this way: if you make yourself aware of which phase you or a good friend is going through, you see yourself in a different light and can help (yourself) better.

Scientists Joe B. Hurst and John W. Shepard researched these phases of the emotional roller coaster in detail back in 1986 and translated them into their so-called roller coaster model.

The individual phases can then be explained as follows:

1. Premonition: The person concerned anticipates an imminent crisis (for example a possible termination) and calculates the (financial and emotional) costs as well as his reactions to it.

2nd shock : Even if you somehow suspected it - now it's a certainty. The worst happened, the disappointment was great. Immediately afterwards a shock sets in. The person concerned needs time to fully grasp their situation and to realize that the result is final.

3a. Grief : The person concerned takes a break and time to mourn. This is part of dealing with a crisis. Often - after a while - it comes to relief: The anxious uncertainty, the wait is over. Life must go on now.

3b. Effort: That's why new plans are being made now: What's next? What should I do? In the event of a termination, the application documents are now usually updated and job advertisements are searched in job exchanges: What is offered? What am I worth in the job market? Light hope sets in. Don't give up! The person concerned encourages himself and tries again. And if there are any initial successes, it goes straight to phase 6.

4a. Worry: But hope is mixed with self-doubt: What if I don't make it? How should it go on then? Temporary worries can even give rise to greater (existential) fears.

4b. Denial: The first spontaneous attempts are unfortunately unsuccessful. It just doesn't go any further or up. But give up or change your strategy? No! Instead, people like to talk about the situation now - especially in private and in front of themselves.

4c. Anger: There is no progress or improvement at all. That frustrates. The trigger (for example the termination) is reflected on again - and the guilty party is sought: the boss, colleagues, circumstances, the system, the conditions in Germany - a scandal! One unfair conspiracy! And the anger becomes the explanation why it doesn't work.

4d. Task: nothing helps. Not even moaning or scolding. No matter what the person concerned does, he (apparently) can no longer get on his feet. In the event of termination, all applications will continue to come back, there are only rejection cases. Without exception. At some point the person concerned gives up and gives up.

4e. Depression : Depending on how important the loss (such as work and career) was before, it is linked to a lot of self-esteem. This can be tolerated for a while, but at some point the self-confidence has a massive crack. Studies show, for example: Long-term unemployment has massive and negative effects on the psyche. Some even fall into depression.

5. Hope: Of course it doesn't have to come to that. There may also be a first ray of hope: A friend gives courage, unexpected opportunities arise, mini success stories. In such a phase they act like an emotional stimulant: new forces are mobilized and new efforts are made. Hope is growing again. If it is suddenly dampened, however, a new 4-cycle cycle begins.

6. Enthusiasm: It looks good - the way out, the solution, the new job is within reach. Now the body mobilizes all reserves - including the emotional ones. Euphoria mixes with the effort. The valley seems to have been overcome.

7a. Overcoming: It is done, the crisis is over. The affected person has lived through his catharsis and may even have emerged stronger from it. Quite a few develop the much-invoked resilience in the process.

7b. New cycle: But things can also turn out differently: Hope bursts. At the last moment the wick that should ignite the second career glows. The crash is all the deeper - a new four-cycle cycle begins. And with it even stronger self-doubt. The depression can now even turn into apathy. Here, mostly only help from specialist doctors helps.

History of science

Title page of the original work by René Descartes: Les passions de l'âme. Paris 1649

From Plato to Aristotle to René Descartes , the psychology of feeling presented itself as a doctrine of affects and passions or of the “Passiones” (dualism of soul and body). The concept of feelings close to the body ( coenesthesia ) goes back to the French school of vitalists . The experimental psychological research approach to measure feelings, for example, goes back to Wilhelm Wundt (1832–1920). In the case of feelings, Wundt distinguished between a) pleasure-displeasure, b) tension-release and c) arousal-calming down. The dimension a) should be described as the subjective part of the feelings, b) as an energetic aspect and c) as a motor or action component. This action component is specific to the term emotion and must not be confused with the energetic aspect. The measurement of feelings must e.g. Partly limit it to the energetic , neurophysiological aspect of the feelings, see EKG , EEG and HGR , z. In some cases , psychological tests (questionnaires, scales, etc.) are used. Wundt also found that every sensation is accompanied by an emotional tone. Carl Stumpf also dealt with the question of “feelings of feeling” . The electroencephalogram (EEG) sprang from German inventiveness and has continued thought of German metaphysics, philosophy and science of the 19th century. Hans Berger (1873–1941) is to be mentioned as the founder of this investigation technique. Berger originally intended to use the EEG as a fruitful method for clarifying the body-soul relationship . Today, in many cases, only the objectifiable side of this investigation has remained and has thus settled predominantly in neurology , while psychiatry has so far not been able to gain much from this procedure. More recently, emotional factors have been described as the cause of EEG anomalies by Pateisky (1957) and can be used as so-called activation methods for deriving brain waveforms. Hans Berger came to the rather disappointing conclusion that the EEG does not show any specific reaction patterns in psychoses. Only a "shortening of the alpha waves" was found by him, similar to that in healthy people in the case of anxiously tense excitement (3rd and 12th part).

Conceptual boundaries

Different emotional states

Some authors differentiate between certain basic feelings , which in turn give rise to other secondary feelings. A distinction is also made between an individual ontogenetic and a supra-individual phylogenetic perspective, cf. → basic psychogenetic law . CG Jung differentiates between feeling and affect , although he describes the transitions between the two as fluid. He considers affect to be synonymous with emotion . Both are more likely to be neurophysiologically definable or to be determined by measurable body innervations, while feelings are caused by rather minimal body innervations, cf. → psychogalvanic skin reaction . While affects can bypass or switch off the will , feelings are an "arbitrarily available function". Jung therefore distinguishes directed feelings - such as B. Loving - from undirected feelings like being in love . He calls directed feelings active, undirected passive feelings. Such passive feelings are irrational because they come about through interaction with intuition like empathy , active feelings, on the other hand, are rational feelings, which, however, owe this evaluation not to thinking, but to subjectivity as a specific property of feeling. Jung's view is not generally shared. Theodor Lipps , together with Hans Walter Gruhle, takes the view that undirected feelings represent a fact that is based in itself. With every other situation one is prepared for something specific. In the undirected feeling, however, one is dealing with oneself ( ego quality ). This distinction makes sense if one realizes that in the case of undirected feeling someone can feel something, but basically only feels himself ( subject-object split ). However, being in love usually contains both components, the general personal being touched and the object relationship. As a result of psychoanalysis , it can be assessed that undirected, diffuse feelings such as B. Free floating fear can also be neurotic . This means that if concrete fears are avoided, as a result of regression and repression , a diffuse, undirected form of fear emerges again, as it is viewed as a normal developmental stage in childhood: the child is not yet able to react to concrete moments of danger. and provide patterns of action like an adult . It is through the development of such patterns that the child usually only learns to master and cope with such dangerous situations.

To come back to the distinction made between basic and secondary feelings at the beginning of this chapter : B. to judge feelings of shame as secondary feelings that develop in the course of socialization and that are related to a complex, individual value system . Its collective and individual viewpoints are responsible for the separation into different ego states. For example, only by identifying an individual with z. B. For a certain culture superego , the corresponding counter-tendencies are rejected and thus classified in a corresponding value system. Against the distinction of basic feelings, the objection is that every conceptual category formation in relation to feelings is detrimental to the nature of the feelings. Ultimately, feelings are neither conceptually nor objectively generally definable, but can at most be described externally in individual cases. Thinking and feeling are different categories of cognition and therefore distinguishing feelings in a conceptual language is incommensurable , i.e. H. classification not appropriate to feeling.

Feeling as an elementary psychological function according to Jung

Typically feminine attitude of the persona according to CG Jung, in which the outer self is turned towards the world of emotions, but the inner self is turned towards the practical things in life

According to CG Jung, feeling is one of the four basic psychological functions alongside thinking , feeling and intuition . According to Jung, these basic functions cannot be derived from other functions. Feeling is seen as a completely subjective process that arises between the ego and a given mental content, but can also be independent of external stimuli in every respect. Nevertheless, a feeling association is evoked with every sensation . Hence Jung's feeling is also described as a rational attitude ; H. as a developmentally and ontogenetically late ability. Jung assumes that sensation and intuition must be viewed as primordial irrational abilities. The essence of the feelings can still not be grasped by intellectual explanations (see also: previous chapter Conceptual delimitations ). They built on the phylogenetically and ontogenetically early functions of intuition and feeling. - Nevertheless, feelings seem to be the ontogenetically primary forms of expression of toddlers, whose intellectual functions are not yet developed (see also: Facial Action Coding System ). According to Jung, feelings and intuition belong to the unconscious soul life in contrast to thinking and feeling. If one combines the points of view of the early less differentiated unconscious and later more differentiated conscious functions with the Jungian division of the early irrational and the later rational functions, the following series results: Intuition → Sensing → Feeling → Thinking. This series indicates that the strength of the physiological influence appears to be greater in the direction of the arrow due to the ontogenetic predisposition than in the opposite direction. Thinking can therefore e.g. B. exert less influence on feelings than feelings on thinking. This assumption has recently been confirmed by neurobiological research results in which the afferents and efferents of the amygdala (as an ontogenetically early feeling center) were compared with each other, especially with regard to afferents from the cerebrum (as a later differentiated organ for thought processes).

The “subjective process” of feeling brings about a very specific evaluation, e.g. B. in the sense of acceptance or rejection. Such an emotional evaluation is also the mood as an isolated, longer-lasting state of consciousness that is independent of momentary sensations (see: pleasure principle - reality principle ; primary process - secondary process ). The function of feeling can also influence a person's character. When it becomes the main function of a person, Jung speaks of a "feeling type". Here the question of relatedness or being affected arises. According to Jung, the function of feeling can be individual or collective. Individual relationship leads to private contacts. Collective relatedness leads to general feeling or to moral awareness. In cases in which there is no pronounced individuality and there is identity with the persona as a collective relationship, the "soul", anima or animus , is largely switched off or unconsciously in oneself and the image of the soul is transferred to another real person. It is a condition comparable to Participation mystique . This identity expresses itself in a compulsive dependence on the complementary idea projected into a real person . If this idea is not projected, the adaptation suffers and a relative lack of relationship results, in that the object is withdrawn from the conditioned character. Sometimes this promotes homosexuality .

Functions of feeling

Because of their evaluation function, feelings have a close relationship to basic ethical concepts or to rationality .

Since the feeling not only conveys objective data from our environment, but can also be viewed as a subjective expression of one's own self , it is always important to distinguish between the two sources of this origin. With the inscription “ Know thyself !” On the Temple of Apollo in Delphi , a request to neutralize one's own reference to the world was linked to being free of subjective sources of interference. Feelings give the respective emotional content certain values . According to CG Jung, they are therefore regarded as rational functions . You already unconsciously evaluate this content as personally acceptable , rejectable or as indifferent to the later necessary conscious discussion. Because of their inherent relationship to a non-discursive, experience-based value system, feelings have a close relationship to the actions or ethical behavior of a person (see Fig.). One criterion of self-awareness is the sense of activity. If one understands feelings as the sum of "elementary factors" that arise from external sensory data, security experiences from the object world, reward and punishment experiences, but which can also be traced back to internal tensions resulting from the drive structure , then their influence must be on the ego structure corresponds to the action schemes fixed in them .

The energetic aspect also comes into play in emotional assessments. Deep feelings can encompass the entire soul life, so that there is hardly any energy left for other things. Such an attitude of the entire organism to a very specific readiness to react is also called provision . The different dynamic character of the feelings must be taken into account in many differentiated reactions (cf. the reactions in feelings of guilt and in the ego anachoresis, which is often used ).

Feelings also serve as a quick and averbal human orientation. They often represent a human expressive function. However, interpersonal communication often contains intuitive factors that do not require verbal communication.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wilhelm Arnold et al. (Ed.): Lexicon of Psychology . Bechtermünz, Augsburg 1996, ISBN 3-86047-508-8 ; Columns 684-691
  2. ↑ a b c d Peter R. Hofstätter (Ed.): Psychology . The Fischer Lexicon, Fischer-Taschenbuch, Frankfurt a. M. 1972, ISBN 3-436-01159-2 ; (a) on “Definition” p. 124; (b) on the stw. “Feeling and vegetative organ functions”: p. 125 f .; (c) on the stw. “The contrition and question of guilt in body-close feelings”: pp. 125, 206; (d) on the tax office “Ethical consequences”: p. 125.
  3. ^ A b Karl Jaspers : General Psychopathology . (1914) 9th edition. Springer, Berlin 1973, ISBN 3-540-03340-8 , 1st part: The individual facts of the soul life, Chapter 1: The subjective phenomena of the sick soul life (phenomenology), § 5 feelings and states of mind, p. 90 ff .; (a) Re. “Synonymity of feelings and states of mind”: see the above-mentioned chapter headings; (b) Re. “Category formation”: p. 90 f. (Paragraph "Psychological preliminary remarks")
  4. ^ A b c Hans Walter Gruhle : Understanding Psychology . (Experiential theory). 2nd Edition. Georg Thieme, Stuttgart 1956; Cape. II Phenomenology, Paragraph E. Das Gemüt, pp. 39–56; (a) Re. “Definition of mind”: p. 39 (“Mind is the collective name for all emotions”); (b) Re. “Sensibility”: p. 324; (c) on Stw. “Being in love - an undirected feeling?”: pp. 46, 49 ff .; (d) Re. “Energetic aspect”: p. 40 f.
  5. ↑ a b Stavros Mentzos : Neurotic Conflict Processing. Introduction to the psychoanalytic theory of neuroses, taking into account more recent perspectives. © 1982 Kindler, Fischer-Taschenbuch, Frankfurt 1992, ISBN 3-596-42239-6 ; (a) to chap. I.3. “Affective and emotional states”: p. 27; (b) to chap. I.5. "Fear": p. 30 ff.
  6. ^ Karl-Ludwig Täschner: Practical Psychiatry . Kohlhammer-Verlag, Stuttgart 1989; to chap. 2.6 "Affect": p. 26.
  7. ^ William James : The principles of psychology . [1890] Holt Rinehart & Wilson, New York, 1950 (2 vols.); P. 450
  8. ^ A b Günther Drosdowski: Etymology. Dictionary of origin of the German language. The history of German words and foreign words from their origins to the present. Dudenverlag, Volume 7, 2nd edition, Mannheim 1997, ISBN 3-411-20907-0 ; (b) on article “Emotion”: p. 154; (b) on article “Feeling”, p. 209.
  9. ^ Gustav Eduard Benseler et al .: Greek-German school dictionary . BG Teubner, 13th edition, Leipzig 1911, p. 704
  10. ↑ Joe B. Hurst, John W. Shepard: The Dynamics of Plant Closings: An Extended Emotional Roller Coaster Ride . In: American Counseling Association (Ed.): Journal of Counseling & Development . tape 6 , no. 64 . John Wiley & Sons, Inc., February 1986, p. 401-405 .
  11. ↑ Dieter Schwarz: How to increase your resilience - Part 3: Recognize your patterns & break them up! In: il Institute for Education and Training Krems. January 30, 2020, accessed on March 5, 2020 (German).
  12. ↑ Ralph Schlieper-Damrich: Crisis Model - KrisenPraxis. Accessed March 5, 2020 (German).
  13. ↑ Jochen Mai et al .: Roller coaster of feelings: Typical phases of life crises. Karierre Bible, December 29, 2019, accessed on March 5, 2020 (German).
  14. ↑ Wilhelm Wundt : Outline of Psychology . Volume IS 35 ff.
  15. ↑ Wilhelm Wundt : Fundamentals of physiological psychology . Vol. I, p. 350 ff.
  16. ^ Carl Stumpf : Sensation and Presentation . Dep. Preuss. Akad. D. Knowledge phil.-hist. Kl., 1918
  17. ^ Johann Kugler: Electroencephalography in clinic and practice. An introduction. 3. Edition. Thieme, Stuttgart 1981, ISBN 3-13-367903-1 , pp. V and 72.
  18. ↑ K. Pateisky: Electroencephalographic activation in epilepsy taking into account mechanisms of the extent of excitation . Vienna. clin. Wschr. 69 / 38-39 (1957) 713-715.
  19. ^ Walter Christian: Clinical electroencephalography. Textbook and atlas. 2nd Edition. Georg Thieme, Stuttgart 1977, ISBN 3-13-440202-5 ; P. 353
  20. ↑ Hans Berger : About the electroenkephalogram of humans . III. Message. Arch. Psychiat. Nerve crisis 94 (1931) 16
  21. ↑ Hans Berger: About the electroenkephalogram of humans . XII. Message. Arch. Psychiat. Nerve crisis 106 (1937) 165
  22. ↑ a b c d Carl Gustav Jung : Definitions . In: Collected Works . Walter-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1995, paperback, special edition, volume 6, Psychological types, ISBN 3-530-40081-5 ; (a) Re. “Delimitation of affect-feeling”: p. 440 f., § 681 and p. 463, § 726; (b) Re. "Category formation": p. 462, § 725; (c) Re. “Nature of the Feeling Function”: p. 460 ff., §§ 720–726 and p. 494, §§ 795–797 (rational functions); (d) Re. “Collective feeling type”: p. 97, § 146 ff., p. 476, § 762, p. 503 f, § 811.
  23. ↑ Erich Neumann : Depth Psychology and New Ethics . © 1964 by Kindler-Verlag Munich, edition in Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag 1985, series: Geist und Psyche, ISBN 3-596-42005-9 ; P. 21
  24. ↑ a b How we feel . ( Memento from February 12, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) HR2-Funkkolleg, November 8, 2008 9:25 am (a) on department “Neurobiology”: 0: 05: 38-0: 07: 42/0: 24: 38 ; (b) on stw. “giving meaning”: 0: 02: 37-0: 05: 37/0: 24: 38
  25. ↑ Wolfgang Loch : On the theory, technology and therapy of psychoanalysis . S. Fischer Conditio humana, ed. von Thure von Uexküll & Ilse Grubrich-Simitis 1972, ISBN 3-10-844801-3 , p. 55