PART 5
                            FEELINGS
     The simplest way to define the subject of Part 5feelings is 
with examples of feelings: anger, love, joy, sadness, and 
serenity.  We frequently mix up the word "feeling" with the word 
"think" when we say, for example, "I feel that this committee has 
exceeded its jurisdiction".  That meaning of the word "feel" is 
very different than the subject here. 
     Unlike cognition, feelings seem to be experienced in the 
rest of the body as well as in the head.  Feelings move us.  This 
is a key characteristic. 
     There is little tested scientific research about the nature 
of our feelings.  Hence the definition and the rest of the 
discussion is based mainly upon speculation and analysis, rather 
than upon empirically-established information or systematic 
theory.  Yes, we know something about the differences in the 
body's chemistry when angry than when joyful, for example, but 
this amounts to only scraps of knowledge that can serve as 
occasional useful checks on the speculation.  
     There is, however, a fast-developing body of science about 
the relationship of therapeutic drugs to our feelings when our 
thinking is out of order.  The body of science about 
psychotherapeutic change of our disturbed feelings has developed 
very rapidly in the last couple of decades, too.  Whereas in 
earlier years psychotherapy had little scientific justification, 
the new methods have been well-tested and proven successful. 
     Feelings apparently start with the undifferentiated pain and 
pleasure that babies (and animals?) experience, perhaps together 
with a neutral feeling in between the periods of pain and 
pleasure.  The experiences of pain and pleasure would seem to 
differ from the neutral feeling by being states of physiological 
arousal.  Of course this is speculation, because we cannot get 
verbal reports on these matters from babies or animals.  
     As we mature, we develop a wider range of feelings that 
derive from pain and pleasure.  Anger, sadness, despair, fear, 
and anxiety are examples of feelings that derive from pain, 
whereas joy, the feelings of amusement, and love derive from 
pleasure. 
     Most people seem to have an inner mechanism that, after a 
siege of bad feeling, returns them to an equilibrium at the level 
of good feeling, after somehow dealing with stimuli that would 
push the level of feeling into the zone of pain.  (If this were 
not so, the human species would have died out long ago).  This is 
consistent with the recent finding of research psychotherapists 
that many people are able to return to normal lives even after 
the most horrible experiences, such as being in a concentration 
camp.  Some people's lives are ruined by such tragedies, yes.  
But a surprising number are able to keep the rest of their lives 
relatively painfree -- often by forcibly repressing the horrible 
experiences.  
     There is less said here about happiness, joy, serenity, and 
other positive feelings than about the negative feelings.  We 
know less scientifically about the positive feelings, as, in 
general, we know more about problems than about non-problems.  On 
the other hand, poetry and music are mainly about the positive 
feelings, and I therefore recommend those arts to you to better 
understand the positive feelings -- as well as being one way to 
get rid of negative feelings and have happy feelings instead. 
      Chapter 5-1 discusses the biological origin of 
psychologically-induced feelings, which center on the comparisons 
a person makes concerning him/herself, in conjunction with the 
degree of control over the situation that the person senses being 
able to exert.  And Chapter 5-1 then provides a systematic 
classification indicating how the various feelings are related to 
each other.  
     Chapter 5-2 discusses the nature of sadness and depression, 
which follow upon habitual negative self-comparisons together 
with a sense of helplessness.   The core of depression is 
prolonged sadness plus a sense of worthlessness, in the context 
of an attitude of helplessness.  To understand depression we must 
therefore understand how sadness is caused, and why it is 
prolonged in some people. 
     The current patterns of thought are largely under your 
conscious control, and are not dictated irrevocably by your 
childhood or your genes.  More specifically, your feelings are 
determined by your "Mood Ratio", the  comparison between what you 
think is your present state of affairs, and a counterfactual 
(hypothetical) benchmark state of affairs.  You feel pain when a 
negative comparison -- a "Rotten Ratio" -- is in your mind.  And 
when a negative comparison is combined with a sense of 
helplessness you feel sadness.  If this occurs habitually, you 
will experience depression.  
     The "numerator" in your Mood Ratio is what you believe your 
actual state of affairs to be at present.  If you misconceive 
your actual situation to be worse than it really is, you expose 
yourself to a painful Rotten Ratio. 
     The hypothetical benchmark-state "denominator" in your Mood 
Ratio may be, for example, circumstances you formerly were 
accustomed to but then lost, or a situation you expected or hoped 
for but that has not occurred, or a state of affairs you believe 
you ought to achieve but have not achieved.       
     Actual present conditions do not explain well why some 
people are prolongedly sad (depressed) and others are not.  There 
are a variety of factors that may be at work, singly or together, 
to produce a propensity for depression in an individual.  These 
influences may usefully be thought of as existing in the present, 
though their causes are in the past: an example is poor methods 
of interpreting reality.  Other influences must be seen in the 
context of the past, such as the death of a parent, or severe 
parental punishment for not being sufficiently successful or 
dutiful.  Different factors combined in a variety of ways cause 
depression in different individuals.
     Chapter 5-3 discusses devices that an individual can employ 
to banish sadness and depression.  The fundamental idea of modern 
psychological therapy for depression is that individuals can 
change their thinking processes in ways that will eliminate the 
patterns which cause the depression.  The layperson may consider 
this to be plain common sense.  But when seen in light of the 
older Freudian view, this common-sense foundation appears 
revolutionary. 
     The causation of depression is not simple, and 
oversimplification leads to unsound therapy.  Anti-depressant 
medications have an important part in helping depressed people 
get well.  But true cure calls for psychotherapy, by yourself or 
with the assistance of a therapist.  A wise therapist can help 
you, but it is not easy to find a therapist who will be good for 
you, and an unwise therapist can make depression worse. 
     Anger, the subject of Chapter 5-4, is a two-edged sword.  
Unlike sadness, anger can hurt others as well as hurting you.  
The harm to others can sometimes benefit you, either by 
influencing others to behave in ways that will be useful to you 
(at least in the short run) or by relieving you of other bad 
feelings.  But in the long run the cultivation of anger is seldom 
a productive strategy.      Chapter 5-5 is about the cultivation 
of joy and serenity.  Of all the topics in this book, this author 
has probably been less expert in the arts of serenity than any 
other.  But because of my lack of skill at it when I was younger, 
I have devoted considerable thought to the matter, and by now I 
no longer am a complete dub at it.  And in the meantime, my 
applied study of the subject has taught me enough to write about 
it, perhaps better than some people who have never had to study 
the subject. 
     Meditation causes a state of altered feeling. Even more 
striking, it causes altered and peculiar - but usually 
interesting and attractive -- thought as well.  Meditation has 
links to mysticisms, to sleep, and to artistic creation and 
enjoyment.  It is discussed in Chapter 00.      Does one want to 
be more, or less, aware of feelings?  Does one want feelings to 
be stronger or weaker?  And is thinking analytically opposed to 
having feelings?  Bertrand Russell found that people often 
assumed him to be devoid of feelings because he was so analytic, 
but Russell judged this to be wrong, and I agree.  One can choose 
to use thought to get rid of bad feelings, as discussed in 
Chapter 5-3.  And one could surely get rid of good feelings with 
thought if one so desired.  But unless one chose to do so, there 
is no reason to think that this should happen automatically.  
Perhaps the sheer habit of stepping back from participating in a 
situation in order to analyse it could reduce pleasant feelings 
from that participation.  But there is no reason that this must 
occur, or even that it is likely.  
     If you choose to moderate your bad mood swings, will your 
good mood swings have to become smaller, too?  I do not have any 
basis on which to suggest a solid answer.  I would guess that 
moderating the bad will also damp down the good somewhat, too, 
but that is only a guess.  
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