Carl Jantzen ([info]doopokko) wrote,
@ 2006-04-01 03:04:00
Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
Current location:Emi's House, Basking Ridge, New Jersey
Current mood:creative
Current music:Daft Punk - Human After All
Entry tags:creativity, definition, loneliness, love, metaemotion, mood

Meta-Emotion
I'm sure there is a better and more-accurate term to describe what I'm talking about, but I have no idea what it is so I'm just going to call it meta-emotion. And obviously because it deals with emotion and feeling I'm not even going to be able to provide anything better than a nebulous definition for the term. Meta-emotion is the feeling where you have a strong desire to experience a "real" emotion. Sometimes it's a specific one, other times it's much more general.

For instance, there is a meta-emotion where one has a strong desire to be in love, or to be loved. Note that this is different from loneliness, because it reflects more of an abstract but active desire for something, not an ache for lack of it. I of course can tell the difference because I'm defining the terms, but I can see how this explenation could be lacking in its clarity and precision.

Another example is the desire to create. Sometimes I am struck by a strong desire to build, construct, create something wonderful and epic, although any specific details as to what it should be or how I should accomplish it are entirely missing.


(Post a new comment)

A comment.
[info]chris_simply
2006-04-01 10:31 am UTC (link)
The desire I find myself experiencing most when I am in the meta realm of thought is the need to create through writing. In that moment, I find myself in tune with my keyboard (the digital pen) and I wish that I could share that moment of to-be-bliss with others.

(Reply to this)
Meta-Emotion
(Anonymous)
2007-09-15 04:15 pm UTC (link)
Your original post was18 months ago, so you may have come across this in the meantime:

http://www.abdn.ac.uk/philosophy/staff/documents/MetaemotionsGPS732006.pdf

The authors, who carried out primary research by asking people what they actually felt about their emotions, propose a theory of meta-emotion which seeks to explain (as I understand it) why we can have apparently contradictory feelings. For example, why can we feel malicious joy at someone else's misfortune? And why should we feel guilty about it?

The paper does contain an awful lot of convoluted set-theory style logico-mathematical-philosophical language in order to persaude the academics that the authors truly 'understand' what they are on about, but in between the formulas there is a wealth of interesting information written in something approaching everyday english.

The authors have a fair bit to say about the effects of meta-emotion on parenting; they contrast people who are aware of their feelings and can talk about them with their children with parents who aren't and don't.

The authors end with the sly comment:

>meta-emotions are not merely a philosophical construction. We are >dealing with reality here.

Which I found a bit of a laugh, considering what they had just written.

(Reply to this)(Thread)
Re: Meta-Emotion
(Anonymous)
2008-01-09 12:48 pm UTC (link)
There is Wikipedia article available on meta-emotion, as well. The link is
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meta-emotion

(Reply to this)(Parent)

Create an Account
Forgot your login?
Login w/ OpenID
English • Español • Deutsch • Русский…