Emotional inteligence
This childlike mode is self-confirming, suppressing orignoring memories or facts that would undermine its beliefsand seizing on those that support it. The beliefs ofthe rational mind are tentative; new evidence can disconfirmone belief and replace it with a new one—itreasons by objective evidence. The emotional mind,however, takes its beliefs to be absolutely true, and sodiscounts any evidence to the contrary. That is why it isso hard to reason with someone who is emotionally upset:no matter the soundness of your argument from alogical point of view, it carries no weight if it is out ofkeeping with the emotional conviction of the moment.Feelings are self-justifying, with a set of perceptions and"proofs" all their own.The Past Imposed on the Present562/661When some feature of an event seems similar to anemotionally charged memory from the past, the emotionalmind responds by triggering the feelings thatwent with the remembered event. The emotional mindreacts to the present as though it were the past. 6 Thetrouble is that, especially when the appraisal is fast andautomatic, we may not realize that what was once thecase is no longer so. Someone who has learned, throughpainful childhood beatings, to react to an angry scowlwith intense fear and loathing will have that reaction to
some degree even as an adult, when the scowl carries nosuch threat.If the feelings are strong, then the reaction that istriggered is obvious. But if the feelings are vague orsubtle, we may not quite realize the emotional reactionwe are having, even though it is subtly coloring how wereact to the moment. Thoughts and reactions at this momentwill take on the coloration of thoughts and reactionsthen, even though it may seem that the reaction isdue solely to the circumstance of the moment. Our emotionalmind will harness the rational mind to its purposes,so we come up with explanations for our feelingsand reactions—rationalizations—justifying them interms of the present moment, without realizing the influenceof the emotional memory. In that sense, we canhave no idea of what is actually going on, though wemay have the conviction of certainty that we know exactlywhat is happening. At such moments the emotionalmind has entrained the rational mind, putting it to itsown uses.State-specific Reality563/661The working of the emotional mind is to a large degreestate-specific, dictated by the particular feeling ascendantat a given moment. How we think and act whenwe are feeling romantic is entirely different from how
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some degree even as an adult, when the scowl carries no
such threat.
If the feelings are strong, then the reaction that is
triggered is obvious. But if the feelings are vague or
subtle, we may not quite realize the emotional reaction
we are having, even though it is subtly coloring how we
react to the moment. Thoughts and reactions at this moment
will take on the coloration of thoughts and reactions
then, even though it may seem that the reaction is
due solely to the circumstance of the moment. Our emotional
mind will harness the rational mind to its purposes,
so we come up with explanations for our feelings
and reactions—rationalizations—justifying them in
terms of the present moment, without realizing the influence
of the emotional memory. In that sense, we can
have no idea of what is actually going on, though we
may have the conviction of certainty that we know exactly
what is happening. At such moments the emotional
mind has entrained the rational mind, putting it to its
own uses.
State-specific Reality
563/661
The working of the emotional mind is to a large degree
state-specific, dictated by the particular feeling ascendant
at a given moment. How we think and act when
we are feeling romantic is entirely different from how
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