Emotion and Anxiety

The primary function of emotion is to predispose and regulate behavior aimed at satisfying any kind of physiological or psychic need. Emotional responses range from a primitively unconscious involuntary reflex to associatively conditioned habitual responses to conscious voluntarily chosen intentions. Conceived psychodynamically, emotion is a sensuous signifier of pain or pleasure regulating the response of an organism to a situation involving cognition of its own needs and environmental opportunities for satisfying them.From diverse perspectives, Freud and existentialists Kierkegaard, Heidegger and Sartre consider the primary emotion to be anxiety. It defensively warns of danger to the satisfaction of an instinctual need; to some other higher level human aspiration; or to some loss of great value. Anxiety presents a demand. It may be the need to gratify a particular desire, to socially control conduct, or to resolve their opposition. The importance and scope of anxiety is underscored by its relatedness to instinctual gratification, self-realization, moral conduct, freedom, creation of personal identity and death. This single most important emotion is focused upon the basic nature and concerns of humanity.This philosophy of emotion follows from the authors first published philosophical work, Escaping Alienation: A Philosophy of Alienation and Dealienation.