Anger is not always wrong

[martin_malin]

Anger is never justified. But you don't get there by telling yourself this or by repressing it. 

[Carl-Richard]

7 hours ago, Eskilon said:

That seems to be a projection of your state of consciousness on the infant. The infant does not have a self at that age, how can it be angry?

It makes a higher amount of angry expressions in response to a failed/blocked goal compared to a fulfilled goal is what they found in that 2006 study. You're maybe underestimating the complexity of 4-month-old cognition (they can orient their attention, move, grab things) and also that evolutionarily speaking, the self occurred later (way later, millions of years) than emotions. This tracks with the evolution of the cortex "out from" what we today consider the limbic structures.

 

7 hours ago, Eskilon said:

Again, is a cell angry?

I've argued that cells could have behavioral modes that resemble anger (energy that faciliates breaking through a blockade or boundary), but that would of course not be mediated by a limbic system as in humans. But I guess the question you can ask is are most animals capable of anger?

What humans do with their self-reflective ability is they reflect and magnify and echo and reverberate emotional states, such that emotional states can trigger emotional states through interaction with thought and interpretation. That doesn't mean the emotions are necessarily born from the reflective capacity. They just often tend to occur in conjuction with them.

Edited 6 hours ago by Carl-Richard

[Natasha Tori Maru]

2 hours ago, Human Mint said:

I don't know, what's the difference?

Frustration typically is less intense: arises from something blocking a goal or expectations. Mild. Thoughts arise coupled with the feeling typically 'this situation isn't working'. It's internal and is simmers. It's a discernment 

Anger is stronger more charged response to something perceived as wrong, unfair or threatening. Causes can be accumulated frustration, injustice, hurt, disrespect etc stronger and more explosive. More likely to be expressed outwardly, sometimes aggressively. It is usually a judgement related emotion. Focus 'someone / situation is wrong'.

[Eskilon]

4 hours ago, Carl-Richard said:

the self occurred later (way later, millions of years) than emotions.

So you say that emotions are more fundamental than self?

[Natasha Tori Maru]

36 minutes ago, Eskilon said:

So you say that emotions are more fundamental than self?

Might be meaning feelings - but I am only guessing. Emotions and feelings are different. But it's going to depend how terms are defined.

In my worldview feelings are direct raw subjective experience. Emotions are more a structured psycho-biological pattern involving feeling, interpretation, physiology, impulse and meaning. 

Some people even bring affect into this mix - which would be a pre-conceptual energetic tone. 

This is getting complex because we are hitting a strange roadblock : at what level of consciou awareness does a sense of 'self' arise? And how exactly are we defining the self as it applies here? 

Edited 1 hour ago by Natasha Tori Maru