jack1509 t1_j8xhs5z wrote on February 17, 2023 at 5:30 PM

Reply to comment by Hip-Harpist in Reason and emotion are deeply connected. Understanding the interplay between them can help us make better sense of the world but eliminates the promise of objective rationality. by IAI_Admin

I don't like to view emotions and rational thinking as if they are somehow opposite to each other or as if doing one means we are suppressing the other I think they are really interrelated to each other. Our thoughts directly influence our emotions, like you can literally think yourself to a bad mood. So I believe rational thinking plays an important role in "sorting" our emotions. I agree that emotions are "non-instaneous" and hence takes some time to manifest. That's why I think rational thinking may not instantaneously fix our mood but if practiced as a habit allows us to have greater control over our emotions over time.

Hip-Harpist t1_j8xjldd wrote on February 17, 2023 at 5:42 PM

I agree with most of this, with the exception that, to an extreme, rational thinking to explain emotions can transform into immature coping mechanisms. Rationalization will “explain away” certain emotions or reactions, like when someone with extreme fear or anxiety of lightning to believe this is natural, since lightning can instantly kill you.

Likewise, “intellectualizing” is an immature mechanism where one tries to “objectively” research or study a problem, thereby depersonalizing the person from the subject. An example would be a man with pancreatic cancer avoiding his feelings on the matter by reading clinical trials, drug trials, and survival rates for his disease at the level of a doctoral candidate instead of attending to his emotional state.

But these are extremes that you certainly didn’t imply, just worth noting, and I agree that practice is needed to find a happy medium of permitting emotional recognition and using rational thinking to guide towards a good solution.

jack1509 t1_j8xmtem wrote on February 17, 2023 at 6:02 PM

Yeah, very good point. Rational thinking while being in a hyper emotional state is extremely tough. I think the trick is not to rationalize every thought and emotions but rather to reach an overall state of "acceptance" that emotions can be "irrational". This is more of a practice in meditation or in stoicism that slowly gives us an ability to make rational choices while acknowledging that what we are feeling right now transcends logic and reason and the futility of having a discussion with it or indulging in it in an investigative sort of way. For example: a stoic asks himself if the anger that he is feeling adds any value to the situation at hand. He reminds himself that this rush of emotions impairs his ability to makes rational choices and it is stupid to let it control you so much. Just this reminder to yourself every time you feel anger weakens it over time.