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Engagements with the World
Emotions and Human Nature
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- 4,99 €
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- 4,99 €
Beschreibung des Verlags
After fi fty years of futile research on mind and behavior, trying to fi nd their causes in the brain,
without success, psychiatrists and psychologists are turning their attention to the emotions, also
looking for their causes in the brain, also without success. The problem is that there is no generally accepted
theory or paradigm for understanding the emotions. William James suggested that such a paradigm must
meet two criteria: (1) it must explain each individual emotion (i.e., anxiety, anger, depression, etc.), and (2)
it must relate all the emotions to each other. This book presents such a paradigm. It is based on the accepted
biological principle that all organisms from the lowest to the highest function in two biological motives,
which I call bipolar reactivity. All organisms seek pleasure and/or that which sustains and promotes life, and
all organisms seek to avoid pain and/or that which threatens or disables life. Interestingly, this biological
principle corresponds to a basic principle of Buddhist psychology that the pain we cause to ourselves and
to each other is caused by the Three Poisons: desire, aversion, and ego. Desire and aversion link humans
to the great chain of being, and ego distinguishes humans from all other beings and recognizes our unique
capacity for symbolic reactivity. I have used this paradigm for fi fty years in my practice of psychotherapy and
have found it very useful for understanding my patients mental and emotional pain and helping them to
understand and heal themselves.