Emotional correspondance

My thought:

I cannot understand (by that I mean feel rather than have knowledge of) someone else's feelings unless I remember the emotion that I have also encountered.

My question:

Is it possible to pick up someone elses feeling or emotion if you yourself haven\'t experienced it before?

This person must have experienced some new form of emotion for you not being able to recall it. Or have no not experienced every emotion?


I think the emotion correspondence comes from the ability to recall one's own experience of the feeling in question. for example, if someone said, " I'm sad because someone stole my wallet. " you may or may not be able to relate to how that emotion feels depending on if you've ever had something similar happen to you.

I don't believe you'll ever be able to feel exactly what they do, because you can't physically or mentally transfer emotion to another person. So, you'll never really know - for sure - how they really feel. You can however recall that instance and feel that emotion to assume that's how they must have felt.

I hope that maybe that opened a new path to your answer.

thanks mugen although I'm still none-the-wiser as to an answer to my question.

Just as a side - remember it isn't the actual incident that affects the individual - its the incident in combination with the past and how they feel at that time. Say or do the same thing to a lady everday for a month!

Well, to answer your question frankly, I think you can be able to pick up on their emotions or feelings in a way. It's done without you thinking though. disregard my opposition in the first post, I'll try to explain myself a little better.

Say he/she tells you what happened that made them feel that way. As you're listening, you put yourself - as best you can - in that situation, and feel the emotion you would have felt if it happened to you.

Now, it may not be exactly like his/her feeling, unless they explain it in great detail, but you would still be able to get an idea of what they must have gone through without even actually being there to experience it.

Power of the mind - perhaps.


- this could be a rephrased version of my first post, but I just this idea after rereading it and reading yours.

Maybe Mugen! - this is theoretical bear in mind - what I need are examples.

I'm still not sure if you haven't experienced a feeling yourself that you cannot see it in another person. However - can you feel an emotion in someone if you 'put yourself in their shoes'? This is classical empathy - I'm still not sure if you can feel something - i.e. the actual emotion - having not felt it yourself. For example - say I have never got an adrenaline rush. Could I experience the feeling someone else has got? I don't think I could 'imagine' the feeling someone with a near death experience has had without having 'felt' that experience.

Hypnosis may be able to do this though and so on that note you're right. But isn't everything the power of the mind and therefore isn't this 'feeling' still being experienced yourself?

I think that possibly there are two types of experiences when it comes to relating to emotions. There is the associative experience which has been mentioned already, wherein a person relates to another person by recalling a similar event in order to associate similar feelings. This is how most people seem to relate to each others emotions. It does not give an exact relation to what a person is really feeling. But the differences are essentially inconsequential.

There is a second type of relation which I personally have experienced to a lesser degree than the associative method. This has happened to me on a subconscious level. It occurs when a person very close to me experiences a very emotional event. I feel an actual physical change in my body which does not necessarily reflect a feeling I would associate to what the other person is experiencing. What I mean is, if someone close to me experiences a great loss like the death of a parent, I will experience a physical reaction like an extreme heaviness, but when using the associative method I may not feel as much emotion because I have not lost a parent and so I cannot make a strong empathetic association.

I believe it is possible to share feelings on a physiological level. Just look at men who experience sympathy pains when their wives are pregnant. I also believe that if you have a traumatic experience with the same level of emotional intensity, or if you simply can relate well enough to what that emotional intensity is, then it is possible to feel exactly what another person is feeling. You just may not have the same thoughts about that feeling.

That's cool Wyote. I agree with you to the extent that we can arrive at feeling similar through understanding. Perhaps what I really mean - lets use the birth example is that a man will never feel the pain of a birth but may use - and here's the nub; a pain that he likens to that event.

Is the actual feeling felt or is a feeling that is perceived to be the same felt in this situation?

quote:

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Is the actual feeling felt or is a feeling that is perceived to be the same felt in this situation?

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I like Wyotes post, because he beings up a very good point. There are definitely two different types of experiences that often get confused when not looked at carefully.

Back to JimBobby's question: One could have experienced a situation leading to a certain emotion, and one may have not experienced a situation but could lead to that same emotion. I thought of it almost as looking at two pieces of jewelry; one being real and one being a look a like.

The problem I have with this situation is that no one can be for certain that our emotions can ever be exactly the same anyway. Since each person's universe is different, even if it is a slight difference, we can never really experience another person's exact emotions. I think it would Have to be a matter of perception, rather than direct experience.


Like I said though, I do believe you Can experience there emotion, not to the exact level they have. I knows it's really getting specific now, but it's should be something to consider.

I'll use the child birth example too. Two women give birth though. One had delivered normally, but felt like dying. Another woman delivered normally, but didn't feel like dying. Put under the same circumstances, they both know what it's like to give birth, but one felt it to a different degree than the other.

Do they know the exact emotion and feeling of each other's births? no. Because to convey that kind of emotion to another, for now, is impossible.