Journal Chacham's Journal: Verbiage: The difference between emotions and feelings 2
van der Hoop in Types of Concious Orientation (considerably cheaper here) in chapter 5 "Feeling And The Feeling Types" (starting on page 70) lists four differences between "emotions" and "feelings".
The following are direct quotes. The ellipses are added by me meaning that i am skipping. Strangely enough, the first one is listed before he makes his list (page 69), and thus doesn't make it part of the list.
- intuition is able to grasp certain manifestations on the part of another individual as a whole, the image of these being later labelled as the concept of a certain emotion (e.g. fear or anger). When these same emotions are experienced in ourselves, they appear quite different. When we feel fear or anger we may not ourselves be aware of the part this is playing in our experience,1 but it is expressed in that experience and in our actions. We are, it is true, aware of something, but supposing, when the emotion had passed, someone enquires, "Why were you so cross?", or, "Why were you afraid?", it becomes evident that the emotion as experienced at the time, and the subsequent awareness of it, which enables us to attach a label to it, are two quite different forms of conscious experience. Recognition and classification take place in quite a different mental sphere from that of the experience itself.
- If we compare
- feeling possesses a much closer association with its object. It is possible to vent one's wrath on another person or on to an animal, but indignation cannot so easily be displaced
- In an emotional state the ego is passive; we are carried away by an emotional manifestation, but in feeling we take a much more active part.
an emotional manifestation may be transformed into a feeling. A short example may illustrate this. A boy may, in his rough play, hurt his younger brother in his violence. His mother tells him he is naughty, and points out what he has done. On another occasion
when beginning to play in a similar way, he may become aware that this means being "naughty". This implies that he is seeing his behaviour intuitively as a whole, involving a certain kind of behaviour towards his environment; and if in spite of this he persists, he will also become more or less aware of a certain attitude towards this environment. It is possible that this attitude was already there, unconsciously, but the fact of becoming conscious of it makes a great difference, because his ego is now involved. - Feeling expresses something of more or less constant worth to us... From the many forms of contact with the world, our feeling selects those which have a certain personal significance for us, and seeks to guard and elaborate them. Feelings are not only emotional attitudes, but attitudes to which we cling, and which we cultivate.
1 To become aware of an emotion may mean that its activity is intensified or diminished, according to what is happening at the moment in the other spheres of mental activity.
1 A. F. Shand, The Foundation of Character
So Feeling
- the person can be aware of during the experience
- has a definite structure
- is associated with an object
- uses an active ego
- expresses something of constant worth
As Spock would say "fascinating".
That's pretty interesting... (Score:1)
--LP
Re:That's pretty interesting... (Score:2)
He has much more to say on the topic of Feelings, but those are the differences he lists.
Jung has a slightly different bent, which he disagrees with. I think he misunderstood Jung (both here, and by N being unconcious). I think they are both correct, just different vantage points.
And studying emotions gets easier when you are studying a feeling. The ego allows it to be done, and being an "insider" on feelings, but not emotions, certainly helps.