“We are obsessed with the failures of others and with a certain enjoyment to see what goes wrong for them”

“We are obsessed with the failures of others and with a certain enjoyment to see what goes wrong for them”

Emotions

We speak with English researcher and historian of emotions Tiffany Watt Smith

“We are obsessed with the failures of others and with a certain enjoyment to see what goes wrong for them”

Our world, or rather our perception of it, is moved by the emotions. Everything that excites connects, impacts in one way or another, and therefore is remembered. The catalog of human emotions is extensive and extremely rich in nuances, however, we only know and habitually handle only a handful of them. Many of the current psychological therapies are focused on its identification, recognition and management.

Tiffany Watt Smith He has spent his entire professional life studying them. Understanding how emotions work, how they are born, their evolution and peculiarities and cataloging the most unusual, this researcher at the Center for the History of Emotions, based in London; Author of the book “The History of Human Emotions” and TED lecturer, she has discovered much about the intricate human psyche and its reactions. We spoke with her on ABC Bienestar.

You say that emotions are directly related to cultures and the values ​​of each era. In light of that, what are the most common emotions today?

It is often said that we live in times of great anger and frustration. Also in a time of anxiety, caused by social media, environmental threat and political instability. In my last book I argue that we are rather in la era del Schadenfreude, that is, obsessed with the failures of others and with a certain enjoyment to see that others receive their punishment or deserved for it, that they are doing badly. But even at the risk of sounding Pollyanna (ability to focus only on the positive), I also see a lot of hope. For example, in the incredible recent global climate protest we have seen anger and defiance, but also esperanza in which things can change, in which we can do something to achieve it.

What purpose do the so-called “bad emotions” serve, what do they teach us?

I don’t think there are good emotions and bad emotions. Emotions are simply what we feel, and all of them therefore have a reason or purpose, from the very basic of adaptation and survival to those related to more human or relational issues. The problem is whether our reaction to these “negative” emotions is antisocial or cruel, or when an emotion causes problems for ourselves or harm to others. As a historian of emotions, I have found that some that today in the West we consider “bad” were in another time and places seen with better eyes. For example, in the 17th century there were authors who considered it important to cultivate sadness, while today many people they get very anxious when they feel sad and they fight this emotion even with medication. In the last five years we have also seen anxiety grow a lot when feeling anger or anger, when in other cultures this is taken as an energizing emotion.

Should we learn to moderate our emotions or rather let them flow?

The only way to better manage our emotions has to do with recognize and understand them. Seneca already said in his book “On anger” that you had to review the entire architecture of emotion, from its first signs, the issues that awaken it and its progression, because the best way to face it is to learn to detect when it is born in you and what situations or people wake it up or turn it on. It is important to recognize that some emotions cause us difficulties and therefore it is convenient for us to observe what feelings they provoke and modify our reactions to them. For example with the aforementioned Schadenfreude, which some politicians promote as a collective reaction to the failure or mistakes of their adversaries. This excitement can be very enjoyable and fun, but it also increases division and confrontation. Maybe it would be nice to stop laughing on Twitter when Trump’s hair is blowing in the wind.

What are the most incredible emotions that you have encountered in the world?

One of the most shocking is Love, a Japanese word that describes the pleasure of depending on another person. In our culture there is no such word, we can only describe the concept of feeling pampered or pampered, but in Japan it is a valuable emotion that for them proves that people are very dependent on each other.

You say that when you name an emotion you immediately feel it or identify it in yourself. How important, then, is language in your relationship with emotions?

Language is essential. The words that name emotions are not ways of describing something static, but rather labels through which we categorize and order our emerging and changing experiences. The boundaries are not clear between what we feel and what we name. And all the time they are making up new names for different emotions, as the so-called Fomo, or fear of being left out (Fear of missing out), or the Swede Fly shame or ashamed of flying because of the impact this causes on the environment. Once we hear one of these words it is much easier for us to identify that feeling or emotion in ourselves and at the same time feel some relief to see that there are more people who experience the same thing as we do.

Emotions, ideas and actions. How would you put them in order of importance?

I think all three are dynamically related. There is a classic view of emotions as a simple physical response to external factors: you see the bear, you get scared, you run. Psychologist William James argues that visceral responses precede sensations, such that you see the bear, you run, and then you feel fear. Today there are some experts who distinguish between emotion, which is physics, and sensation, which is something more intimate and fluid. I would add that the ideas we have about certain emotions modify the way we feel or perceive them. For example, a chill, with an elevated heart rate and the hairs on the back of the neck standing up, may be fear because a tiger is approaching, or it may be “a wonderful fear,” a concept used by monks in the 13th century to describe ecstasy. that they felt when they believed they were being visited by God, or it may also be what the Pintupi of Western Australia call “ngulu”, a kind of fear that a rival is seeking revenge. Depending on your beliefs, those sensations will have a different texture. Our cultural beliefs can also affect what appear to be “automatic” emotions. In the Middle Ages it was possible it was possible to faint from “consternation” and until 1918 people died in a very extreme form of nostalgia.

Are emotions also related to gender and age issues?

I think we are still used to certain clichés today, such as that women are more emotional or that as you get older you are more optimistic. I am especially interested in studying how certain cultural issues related to gender and age determine how we experience our emotional life and how we perceive certain emotions negatively or positively, considering them correct or incorrect. Historically there are emotions considered more masculine, such as anger or jealousy, and others more feminine, such as envy or resentment. But of course we can all feel a wide range of emotions.

What is your favorite emotion?

My answer to this question changes all the time. Right now I would tell you that it is what in English we call «warm glow» (something like «warm glow» or «warm glow»), which is the intimate satisfaction that one feels when executing a act of kindness. I think we need a lot more of this right now!

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