0.8 Levels of emotion and thought  (Page 2/3)

Arieti thought that second-order emotions started not from an “impending attack on the system” but by cognitive processes which he believed to be visual symbols or representations in the mind of real things (images). He explains how important images are to humans “Image formation is actually the basis for all higher mental processes. It enables the human being not only to recall what is not present, but to retain an affective disposition for the absent object. The image thus becomes a substitute for the external object.” If the image is pleasant it acts as a motivator, and if it is unpleasant it has the opposite effect. Then he explains how these images play a role in the higher order cognitive processes of some second order emotions. It is clear to me, however, that not only images play a role in thought, when people think of a word they don’t always see a strong image. There is going to be an image associated with practically everything, but you don’t always bring up that image all the time. He lists the following second-order emotions:

• He said that anxiety is “the emotional reaction to the expectation of danger”, and that it isn’t the result of simple perceptions or signals (which would mean anything real that initiates a reaction) but the result of images which enable a human to anticipate danger and its consequences, and that anxiety is image-determined fear (fear is a first order emotion because it is the result of direct stimulus).
• He stated that anger is rage elicited by the images of stimuli. Rage leads to an immediate reaction, however anger lasts longer and that is possible because it is mediated by images in the mind. Rage is useful for survival, and anger is useful to retain a hostile defensive attitude.
• Wishing is “made possible by the recall of the image or other symbols of an object whose presence is pleasant”.
• The emotion security. He didn’t know if security as an emotion actually existed or was just the absence of unpleasant emotions. You can visualize an image of security, an “image-determined satisfaction”.

My take on this is that images make the second-order emotions higher cognitive processes. Without an image someone isn’t really thinking, they are just responding to stimulus instead of conjuring up something in their mind, which is going to take longer. However, rage and the other first order emotions are going to also bring up images immediately in a more unconscious way (but also some might be conscious just very fast) before someone can respond to the stimulus. In that way rage can be intellectual. If you think about it, something in your own mind can cause you to be enraged, and therefore it was an intellectual process which started the rage and is associated with it when the rage is being experienced. It isn’t like rage is completely mindless, it is actually driven by anger, which is a second order emotion. Rage is simply more related to direct stimulus because that is much easier to get upset about because it is real and requires less thought. So anger is a more intellectual emotion because it lasts longer than rage and is easier to maintain because it only needs thought to be maintained, but rage is somewhat of the opposite. Rage and anger overlap to certain degrees as well. The same can be said of the other first and second-order emotions. The important fact is that real world stimuli elicits more powerful emotions that are less cognitive in first order emotions than in second order ones, however both are cognitive (which also means might be assisted by images) and both might be assisted by events in the real world (stimuli). Things that happen in the real world are simply more likely to stimulate a stronger emotional reaction.