A useful notion
in understanding how we feel is that of primary and secondary emotions.
Primary emotions
What is felt
first
Primary emotions
are those that we feel first, as a first response to a situation. Thus, if we are
threatened, we may feel fear. When we hear of a death, we may feel sadness. They are
unthinking, instinctive responses that we have. We will typically see these in animals also, which
confirms our suspicion that they have an evolutionary basis.
Typical primary
emotions include fear, anger, sadness and happiness
(although it is worth noting
that these can also be felt as secondary emotions).
Often transient
The problem sometimes
with primary emotions is that they disappear as fast as they appear.
Their replacement by secondary emotions complicates the situation, making it difficult to
understand what is really going on.
Secondary emotions
What is felt
next
Secondary emotions
appear after primary emotions. They may be caused directly by them, for
example where the fear of a threat turns to anger that fuels the body for a fight reaction. They
may also come from more complex chains of thinking.
Simple or mixed
feelings
Secondary emotions
may be simple feelings or may be a mix as more emotions join the fray.
Thus news of a wartime victory may start with feelings of joy, but then get tinged with sadness
for the loss of life.
So what?
If you want to
diagnose a person's condition, then looking at primary and secondary emotions
gives you a fuller picture.
To find the real
issue or cause of the person's condition, look for the primary emotion. Do not
blindly accept the emotion you see as the primary emotion, but try to find what may have come
first.
The secondary emotions
give you a picture of the person's mental processing of the primary
emotion. Question them, slowing down their mental process, to determine the internal reasoning
as to why they came to feel the secondary emotions. This will often be unconscious and can be
as big a surprise to them as it is to you.
