POLL: Are all emotions valid?

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Negative emotions/feelings are important. We all have them and denying them may cover them up but deep within us are still there and will manifest themselves in destructive ways. IE: Anger->Hate.

Having and understanding a negative emotion also makes us able to emphasise with others. IE: The sorrow we feel at the loss of a loved one gives us sympathy and understand of what others feel when they lose someone.

As Montresor said good and 'bad' emotions balance each other just as rain and sun balance each other. The secret is control, not letting the emotion whether good or bad rule you. If our earliest ancestors hadn't felt fear, anger, lust etc. we wouldn't be here today discussing it.

 

To be able to enjoy the good times, you have to experience the bad times.

So, yes.

 

Strangely enough, I'm inclined to agree with the above, though I'm struggling as I can to find a different wording.

Basically, without suffering, how can one be(come) a good person? It's hard for me to see how one could be a good person without understanding suffering. I don't want to say understanding evil, but understanding suffering. It's just hard for me to see. However, I don't think you need to be able to hate in order to be able to love. Experience hate from somewhere maybe, but not within yourself, I think... not necessarily. Surely, however, experiencing the evil side of you can help you cling to your better one. As in if you know what evil you can do, you can thus be more inclined to keep yourself in check.

 

Hmm - yeah - methinks this thread isn't going anywhere. No one really has an opinion that's worth arguing against (because they're all basically positive or not very negative towards my pov anyway).

chev: Do you mean that people should experience hate etc. vicariously through, say, music or art or whatnot rather than in their own lives?

 

I feel that a subject can be interesting and worth exploring without having to be argued about.

Hate is probably the one emotion that is truly destructive. However we all use the word frequently. "I hate califlower." I certainly wouldn't go out and try to destroy all the califlower in the world.

The word hate is one of those English words that can mean anything from a very mild rather general state to an intense and destructive both to self and others state.

Oh, Jealousy, that is another one. A little jealousy might be good but a lot of jealousy bad.

 

Hmm... Why do I sense that there's no difference being made between being the object or subject of hate? I don't wish anyone being hated, but at the same time it can make you appreciate being loved by other people, or want to stay away from hating. Some people do things until they are done to them, then they stop because they know how it feels. As I said, hating others can ultimately somehow lead you towards the idea you shouldn't do it, it's wrong, it wastes your energy, impoverishes your spiritual life etc. On the other hand, you might develop a taste in it. Depends on people and circumstances. As for vicarious experiences, they are often better if you still learn the lesson but don't face the negative consequences other than being shaken or feeling pity for someone. Sometimes vicarious experiences aren't enough, though.

 

Maybe Oook? whould have been more descriptive to what I'm thinking, as the word 'emotion' is pretty ambiguous.

But I voted No. If you think of emotions as strong feelings, or even if you'd think of them as ways of reaction, the answer should be no. Some things in life brought up by or associated with certain emotions you can't take back. Some things you can't forget no matter and maybe because you want to forget them so much.

I would rather that I would have never felt some emotions and some feelings in my life. Some things that tear your heart out and leave you emotionally cripple for years to come. I would gladly give away the ability to feel anything than to experience some of those emotions ever again. Being cynical is much worse than not to feel anything, and some things leave you scarred for so long that being cynical might be the only thing you know to do.

One emotion that is entirely useless for a person is shame. Of course it works. Of course it has it's function. But a person who does something, even a good thing because of it, or because of the fear of it is a miserable creature. Invoking shame is the way of the pack to tell it's member that he should die away, that he is the one who is truly expendable. Unfit. Usually it happens. Those who are not welcome to enjoy the safety of the pack cease to be, if they are not strong enough to survive without the pack.

 

I think the so-called 'negative' emotions are given a bad rap a lot of the time. All emotions are reactions to stimuli, and every reaction has its purpose and is important. Hate, anger, fear, even jealousy, as well as love, fondness, happiness, anticipation, excitement, etc. Without these emotions, a significant part of the human experience would be lost.

On top of that, other humans are by no means the only things that provoke said emotions. In fact, many emotions provoked by other people are the worst reactions. We should not hate other people, but we can still hate, just not people. I hate that dried coconut flake stuff they put on doughnuts and the like. And I mean I HATE it. I hate lieing, and I hate rape, and I don't know if I'd be able to live with myself if I didn't.

All emotions are valid and worth feeling in their proper place.

 

No, still not agreeing with most of you...

What about the mad glee you get when you have defeated your opponent in a bloody fight? The joy you feel when you know that you are feared? It might feel oh...so good...but it's not worth anything. It is terrible to gain your pleasure from the suffering of others. To love to cause pain and fear. Better to be without it.

 

@I-T: I think you may be confusing the emotions themselves with the sensations that generate them. Similar feelings can arise from many sources, and I'll agree with you that some - OK, many of those sources are less than valid.

 

@Rallymama: Humm, I'm still not quite sure what you mean, but I mean that there are these specific emotions, or somesuch, that there might not even have a proper name for them. Like schadenfreude - the joy you get from someone else's misfortune. The germans have that word for it, we finns have a word for it as well. It's a specific type of joy and if joy's an emotion then so is schadenfreude. And as such it is an emotion that people can do without, so much so that there hasn't even been a need to make up an english word for it. Then there's this distinct emotion in finnish "petetyksi tulemisen tunne" which doesn't translate that well, but it's the feeling or the emotion you get when you're betrayed.

And so the reason why I might get a little mixed up with feelings, sensations and emotions is that in finnish all three of them are classified under a single word 'tunne' which is used in several other situations as well. "I know you" is in finnish "Minä tunnen sinut", but depending of the situation you might say the same thing and mean "I feel you"! So I'm not at all sure what's the distinction between a feeling, a sensation and an emotion.

 

Here is a fact for you: Without bad, there is no good. Without negitive emotions we would have no positive. Think on it.

 

I don't think that rule applies every situation. Not quite. The greater the hate the bigger the love? Or as pointed out earlier by Chev:

Every emotion is not valid for an individual, but emotions, controlling them and expressing them in the right way are needed in order to function properly with other people. Still I think that there are some permanent emotional states of mind that are quite specific, although luckily extremely rare, that drive certain individuals to do horrible things over and over again.

Another completely useless emotion with shame is despair. And if you'd go saying that without despair there wouldn't be hope, then that would be fine by me. Hope is not necessary.

Without emotions we just wouldn't function properly. And it is probably so that you can't take out one emotion that you don't like and keep the ones you like. Then again the idea of an emotionless life is kind of tempting as much as that kind of life wouldn't be a life as we feel life to be.

 

Iku isn't the feeling of having crushed your opponent, just the feeling of victory? as far as i can see the terrible feeling you describe of having crushed your opponent and enjoying the fear of the others, is just the feeling of victory and knowing your better then the rest, which is quite a positive feeling.

which i think is what rally is trying to point out. the two emotions you describe are diffenetly not bad, the situation they felt in as you describe it are.

 

Fair enough, point made, but I'd still consider them separate emotions. Feeling of victory in a competition or a fair fight is different from sadistic pleasure.

 

Not that it's true, but I like to think that there are only positive emotions. That hatred would be just the non-existence or lack of love, just like cold is the lack of warmth.

I consider jealousy the most vile and tricky emotion.