Emotions and the Body

Emotions, according to Denzin (1984), include three fundamental components: specific neural basis, characteristic bodily expressions, and distinct subjective qualities. In this way, "emotionality radiates through the lived body of the person" (p. 3) including the brain, body, mind and heart of the person. Emotional effects on the mind and body offer much to be further explored. (Denzin distinguishes that this "emotionality," specifically, is the process of being emotional which places us within a social world, another topic to address separately because of all it has to offer. Discussion in this and other posts will include the essentially social nature of emotions, even private ones.)

James-Lange Theory's definition of emotion is primarily physiological and nonconscious: "an agitation of the passions or sensibilities, often involving physiological changes... and to excite, to move out, to stir up, to move." According to this theory, emotions are the results of bodily changes in response to a situation, which recalls the idea of the Cartesian Passions referred to in an early post. Even if James and Lange's early theory has the order of events incorrect (emotions following physical reactions to perceived events), the strong sense of the body-emotion link is still valuable.

Hochschild's definition of emotion supports this link, as emotion is defined as "bodily cooperation with an image, a thought, a memory- a cooperation of which the individual is aware." And Scheff corroborates, "emotions are specific patterns of bodily changes, whether or not there is conscious awareness." So while the order of events and role of conscious awareness are debatable at this point, the author further emphasizes the point that "emotions are embodied experiences. The place of the body as an instrument in the expression of the emotion cannot be denied." As I will be aiming to effect emotional responses in my audience, I will rely on this bodily cooperation, whether conscious awareness is part of the response or not.

Discussion in Denzin's text come to agree that in the process of awareness-recognition-interpretation, interpretation of emotions does not occur in the body; mental interpretation has value that may later be discussed in its value to individual emotional responses. I take this to mean that emotions in the rawest unthought-out form are those being experienced in the body, not having as much individualizing mental mess but being more universal. I will aim to apply myself towards the more universal emotions in this project, so this is a great coincidence in the essential role of the body in this kind of emotional experience.

Resources:
Denzin (1984).