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Anger and fear: ten years of research in the lab and field

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Re: Anger and fear: ten years of research in the lab and field

#21

Post by epgui »

nonameiguess wrote: post #16
meken wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s interesting. Any chance you remember which study it was?

It's from a book by Antonio Damasio called Descartes' Error: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descartes'_Error The first known case is Phineas Gage, but I'm pretty sure Damasio documented more contemporary patients he had studied live (been a while since I read this book).

Phineas Gage is a terrible example: he suffered incredible frontal lobe injuries. Neuroanatomy is much more complex than "part A performs job X", but the frontal lobe is particularly important in executive functions. More caudal structures are more closely associated with emotion, in general.

Re: Anger and fear: ten years of research in the lab and field

#22

Post by mistrial9 »

roughly wrote: post #5
aluminum96 wrote: post #3

> Emotions are coordination systems designed to refocus your entire cognitive architecture towards a specific task This is a really powerful way of looking at emotion. Of course emotion serves an evolutionary purpose, but it's such a basic part of our lived experience that it's hard to view it critically like that.

There have been studies that have associated emotion with decision making - people who, for some reason, lack an emotional state, find it basically impossible to make a decision.

context on what kind of decision, at that time of day or night, under what mental conditions.. would be very telling.. too broad as stated

Re: Anger and fear: ten years of research in the lab and field

#23

Post by nonameiguess »

epgui wrote: post #21
nonameiguess wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's from a book by Antonio Damasio called Descartes' Error: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descartes'_Error The first known case is Phineas Gage, but I'm pretty sure Damasio documented more contemporary patients he had studied live (been a while since I read this book).

Phineas Gage is a terrible example: he suffered incredible frontal lobe injuries. Neuroanatomy is much more complex than "part A performs job X", but the frontal lobe is particularly important in executive functions. More caudal structures are more closely associated with emotion, in general.

Damasio bases his conclusions on his own patients, not Phineas Gage, who is provided as a famous example for historical context. The only reason I'm mentioning only him by name is I remember his name and I do not remember the names of Damasio's patients. I actually think he doesn't even give their real names since they're patients and subject to confidentiality laws.

Re: Anger and fear: ten years of research in the lab and field

#24

Post by bigcat123 »

epgui wrote: post #8
bigcat123 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No Emotions do not serve any purpose. It's a abstract concept describing certain psychogical process in human that is not characterized by so-called rational thinking. Most non artificial things are not serving any purpose, they are coincidents filtered through natural selection. Most artificial things serve some purpose of its makers.

I understand why you're being downvoted, but I do think there is value in your comment. It's perhaps not the most artful articulation of ideas, but it points to serious (afaik) philosophical questions. Whether emotions have a purpose is both a semantic and a philosophical question. I would point anyone who thinks this comment is unreasonable to discussions about teleology and science: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Te…

No post body was provided.

Re: Anger and fear: ten years of research in the lab and field

#25

Post by epgui »

nonameiguess wrote: post #23
epgui wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Phineas Gage is a terrible example: he suffered incredible frontal lobe injuries. Neuroanatomy is much more complex than "part A performs job X", but the frontal lobe is particularly important in executive functions. More caudal structures are more closely associated with emotion, in general.

Damasio bases his conclusions on his own patients, not Phineas Gage, who is provided as a famous example for historical context. The only reason I'm mentioning only him by name is I remember his name and I do not remember the names of Damasio's patients. I actually think he doesn't even give their real names since they're patients and subject to confidentiality laws.

Fair enough! I'm not familiar with the book.

Re: Anger and fear: ten years of research in the lab and field

#26

Post by AtlasBarfed »

There seems to be an oblique critique of people that are suddenly pro-intervention and pro-war that are classified as traditional anti-war/peacenik.

This analysis may be true, but seems to be trending here because of that undercurrent running through discussions of Russia/Ukraine.

I do not think this is some irrational fear stirring within people in the abstract sense. There are very good reasons to see this as far more than just another regional conflict.

Ukraine is a line in the sand against the very idea of modern authoritarianism. What has been occurring for the last 10 years politically is a disturbing trend towards authoritarianism. China is now much more authoritarian under Xi. "Populism" movements with leaders openly admiring Putin.

Putin is the perverse hero of these ambitious strongmen.

Putin's cult of personality among wannabe far right wing movements is a disturbing trend undermining not just some idealistic dream of true liberal democracy, but even the more mundane functional republic we generally have.

Here we have Putin nakedly expressing aggression, as a sort of apex achievement of decades of psy-ops, "fomenting despair", and other KGB manipulations.

What's important here is not to just rebuke Putin's ambitions in the realist/actual political and power sense, in the immediate sense. What is important here is to destroy this god of the dangerous radical far right, embarrass his armies, shame him, show him impotent and powerless before a nascent Ukrainian national identity that should have no fighting chance.

Re: Anger and fear: ten years of research in the lab and field

#28

Post by [deleted] »

epgui wrote: post #20
Bayart wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From a purely rational point of view, isn't it safer to assume that by default every element of our species is purposeful unless proven otherwise ?

No more "purposeful" than a bag of chemicals, or molecules in a gas, bumping into each other at random, really.

[deleted]

Re: Anger and fear: ten years of research in the lab and field

#29

Post by kibbleble »

meken wrote: post #11
roughly wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There have been studies that have associated emotion with decision making - people who, for some reason, lack an emotional state, find it basically impossible to make a decision.

That’s interesting. Any chance you remember which study it was?

Not OP but I also looked into it and agree: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnint.2019.0001...
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