Who’s Really the Boss? It sounds like a capitalist’s dream come true, monetizing your feelings. Except it’s already come true. There are many jobs that include emotional labor. Sociologist, Arlie Hochschild was perhaps the first to write, back in 1983, about emotional labor in her book The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling. In herContinue reading “Emotional Labor”
Tag Archives: feelings
Shame
Chapter 6a of Meeting the Voices in My Head and Searching for an Inner Adult The other night, I walked into Starbucks, placed an order, and, when I reached for my wallet, discovered I forgot not only my wallet but also my pants. Fortunately, this was only a dream, but I didn’t know it atContinue reading “Shame”
Fear at the Grand Canyon
Chapter 5b of Meeting the Voices in My Head and Searching for an Inner Adult It was an ordinary day inside my head. I was relaxed, happy, and had not a care in the world. All the people in my brain were getting along. I couldn’t ask for any better than that. Outside my head,Continue reading “Fear at the Grand Canyon”
The Evolution and Domestication of Feelings
Chapter 5a of Meeting the Voices in My Head and Searching for an Inner Adult I suspect I’m not going to find my Inner Adult in my feelings. There doesn’t seem to be anything adult about them. Good or bad, they are some of the most childish things I’ve got. How can I be soContinue reading “The Evolution and Domestication of Feelings”
What Are Feelings For?
Feelings are like the idiot lights on your car. They’re crude messages about your state of being. When the oil light goes on in your car, you know to check the oil. When you feel angry, you know there is a perceived injustice somewhere. You don’t ignore the idiot light on your car, do you?Continue reading “What Are Feelings For?”
How Feelings Are Made
Science often tells us that things are not what they seem. Why should feelings be any different? Continue reading →
A Guide to Pain and Suffering
Your feelings tell you about the state of your body. If you’re putting on a roof, carrying shingles up a ladder, swinging a hammer until your hand falls off, sweating it out at a hundred and ten degrees, your body will have a lot to say. You may not want to listen to it. You’veContinue reading “A Guide to Pain and Suffering”
Dissatisfaction and Craving
Sharpening your point until you miss it There are two ways of wanting something; you can be broad, or you can be precise. It’s possible to be too broad or too precise. There are many other words in the vast family of wanting: annoyance, anxiety, boredom, complaint, discomfort, dismay, displeasure, disquiet, distaste, exasperation, frustration, discouraged,Continue reading “Dissatisfaction and Craving”
Why Can’t We Turn Away?
The fascinating and appalling state called abjection There’s a psychological mechanism that isn’t very well known, yet it’s involved behind the scenes in many emotions. It plays a part in disgust, revulsion, repugnance, aversion, distaste, nausea, abhorrence, loathing, detestation, horror, contempt, weird, outrage, terror, fear, fright, panic, dread, trepidation, hatred, hate, abomination, execration, odium, antipathy,Continue reading “Why Can’t We Turn Away?”
Shame
We have no emotion that’s not useful in some way. Everything is there for a purpose, even an emotion that undermines its purpose. I’m talking about shame. Its purpose seems to be to help us fit in with others. Shame, and its milder version, embarrassment, comes up when you violate a social norm which mightContinue reading “Shame”
Keith R Wilson 