Even if you came up with answers to someone’s deepest problems, it would likely be a long time before they might be able to accept this help. In words attributed to Winston Churchill, “Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.” People race from one self-help book to another, instantly setting aside the material from the book they just finished reading.
Searching for Answers
At 81 and still searching. I am constantly reading and researching and writing. So it has never really stopped at all. Only now I say I am doing it for my blog, books and articles I am writing. It seems I will never stop until I am no longer able mentally or physically to continue.
Only recently I discovered the force motivating my endless searching –– the SEEKING System. Years back I read “Affective Neuroscience: the foundations of human and animal emotions.” This was my stumbling over the truth and picking myself up and moving along my way. Years later I read “The Archeology of Mind:’ neuroevolutionary origins of human emotions.” Both these books by Jaak Panksepp contained much of his same research, but after reading the second book I went back and reread the first and then reread the second book, again and again, even reading much of it aloud.
Working in his lab with rats, Jaak Panksepp found seven primary-process emotional systems built into the brain by evolution. We and all other mammals are born with these innate neural systems in our brains. We are always on the lookout for something that we might need or want, or something that might just interest us or satisfy our curiosity. Our SEEKING systems keep us in a state of engagement with the world. “Beginning at birth, it is “a goad without a goal.”
Seven Primary Affect Systems
- SEEKING (expectancy)
- RAGE (anger)
- FEAR (anxiety)
- LUST (sexual excitement)
- CARE (nurturance)
- PANIC/GRIEF (sadness)
- PLAY (social joy)
The SEEKING system is powered by dopamine from the VTA.
It is a general-purpose system for obtaining all kinds of resources that exist in the world. It participates in all appetitive behaviors that precede consumption. It generates eagerness for food, sex, and political power, but evaporates once the target is snatched.
But the SEEKING system is without any morality. It is the greed that allows us to gather as much of the rewards out there as possible. It is the get-up-and-go-for-it system. So it needs to be trained in ethics and morality in order to reduce human tragedies like global warming.
Servant of Our Emotional Systems
Motivation comes from this ancient subcortical SEEKING system. We sometimes pursue without really knowing why. The neocortex, the highest executive part of our brain and the source of human intellect is the servant of our emotional systems. The SEEKING system impels the neocortex to find ways of meeting our needs and desires. The SEEKING system urges the neocortex to do things that make us feel important and in command. The SEEKING system prompts us to satisfy our liking for novelty. The SEEKING system urges the neocortex to devise ways to gratify each and every one of our desires. It is a powerful ancient subcortical system overriding our rational brain and can get us into serious troubles.
In many, if not most psychotherapies, basic primary-process emotions are given short shrift or completely left out of the therapy. If a child had endured physical and emotional abuse as a child and bullies now as an adult, the therapist might work through this background in terms of behavior today. It might be found that the client bullied the weak and vulnerable to vent rage at a parent that could not be expressed to the parent. Or if the client were a man, perhaps the bullying might be to restore his masculine self-esteem. The point being that exploring and connecting past abuse and current bullying would lead to a happier life and even a cure, but it does not have such an effect.
Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT)
Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) focuses primarily on the present, leaving both the past and primary-affects out of discussions. CBT is effective for problems in daily life, but not very effective with severe emotional trauma. I tried CBT for years with little improvement. My problem was a violent rage that when erupted had to run its course. I knew I would end up in prison if it could not be dealt with. My RAGE was frighteningly uncontrollable. When I tried to hold back, I felt it ripping me apart, like my heart might erupt in cardiac arrest.
The RAGE system of the brain can be sensitized by childhood abuse and become hyper-responsive. Thus, even when the patient fully understands the origins of their RAGE and makes an extreme effort to curb it, they are unable to staunch the chronic emotional irritation. If somehow they were able to control outbursts of RAGE, they might continue to suffer as much as before, perhaps even more, because the pressure would continue to build with no outlet for their simmering RAGE.
Affective Neuroscience
Even though cognitive issues are important to deal with, primary-process emotions have to be dealt with on their own terms. Thoughts are not always stronger than affects, which is why cognitive therapeutic interpretations often do not work well with serious psychopathology. Cognitive therapy is rendered ineffective in the face of dominant primal passions.
Affective neuroscience provides a data-based taxonomy for understanding and discussing the foundations of emotional life. Affective feelings are an important part of our subjective lives and should not be ignored in therapy. They influence our behaviors, mold our relationships, and shape the textures of our everyday mental experience. And the SEEKING system is the driver behind all of our emotional systems.
Managing Emotions
With this understanding, I manage emotions with Cognitive-Behavior Therapy (CBT) and some of the attention therapies such as Ki Breathing Meditation, Open Focus, Insight Meditation, Metacognitive Therapy (MCT), and Bibliotherapy. These therapies will be infective, though, unless they are well understood and practiced on a regular basis so that they become tools you call upon on demand.
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
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Great post.
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Well done, Joel.