Jaak Panksepp’s research goes deep into the wordless territory of affect or feelings and emotions where few psychologists, psychiatrists, or other researchers have gone. After years of work with lab animals he came up with seven primary affect systems:
Seven Primary Affect Systems
- SEEKING or expectancy
- RAGE
- FEAR
- LUST
- CARING
- PANIC/GRIEF
- PLAY
These seven basic emotional systems are the results of years of data-based lab research of functions of deep-brain neural systems. Panksepp summarized this research in “The Archaeology of Mind: Neuroevolutionary Origins of Human Emotions.”
This book needs to be read by researchers in the field of pharmacology because so much of the basic research has been done by Panksepp. Panksepp worked with brain implants in rats to discover precisely in the brain where these affects originate and what other parts of the brain they affect. His book contains raw data that can be used for research into medicines specifically targeting areas deep below the cortex of the brain.
Therapists who have dealt with feelings as secondary mental events rather than primary affects need to be versed in affective neuroscience. Affect cannot be dealt with as secondary with Cognitive Therapy. Thoughts are not necessarily stronger than emotions. Talking can be ineffective in the face of primal passions.
Since you can’t measure affect, researchers have considered feelings and emotions off the map in terms of their research projects. But Panksepp proved you can measure affect by stimulating precise points in the brain that cause the animal to respond with the targeted primary affect. For example, when he stimulated the part of the brain for RAGE it set off RAGE with no other external provocation. He could be sure that RAGE is a primary affect since it is triggered by stimulaing a precise point in the brain. He created maps in the brain for each of the core affects. Below is my approximate brain map for:
RAGE:
RAGE Affect Brain Location Map
PAG is the standard abbreviation for brain tongue-twister periaqueductal gray.
I suffered with uncontrollable RAGE and was in domestic counseling with Cognitive Therapy. It had zero effect. I knew my behavior was horrible and my thinking was not rational. But I could not get across to any therapist hat once RAGE was set off I had no control. During one episode I smashed a dining table and chairs into wooden pieces. I was a monster! I and my family were finally saved by a serotonin reuptake inhibitor.
Prozac targets serotonin brain synapses in the cerebral cortex, the outer executive rational blanket covering the brain. This outer layer plays a secondary role with emotional responses. The deeper, subcortical recesses of our mammalian and reptilian brain generate the prime raw affective, emotional, feeling experience.
I take Prozac, but therapy consists of Ki Breathing Meditation, Insight Meditation, Metacognitive Therapy, Open-Focus, Attention Training Therapy, and Bibliotherapy.
Self-help books that help:
Total Self-Renewal through Attention Therapies and Open Focus
The Open-Focus Brain: Harnessing the Power of Attention to Heal Mind and Body
