NON PSICOLOGICA

Sito di contenuti sul funzionamento

della mente umana

                     Emotions and Sentiments:

The Hierarchy of Energetic Streams and Neurocultural Structuring

(By Alberto Bonizzato – Behavioral Coach)

The Deconstruction of Paul Ekman’s Model and the Mechanics of Projective Selection

Within the saggistico-scientific framework of the POMM (Perspective of Observation of Mind Mechanics), it is functionally imperative to enforce a sharp epistemological division between Primary Emotions and Sentiments. Inside the collective consensus and orthodox psychology, these two domains are systematically confounded, manufacturing a severe distortion in the proprioception and decoding of human behavior.

The core discrepancy is strictly hierarchical and biomechanical:

・ Primary Emotions: Operate exclusively at the subcortical level within the Limbic System and the Amygdala. They constitute pure, instantaneous, pre-cognitive energetic activations. They cannot be repressed via rational intervention, they cannot be "felt" directly in a conscious manner, and only their returning somatic and kinetic feedback can be registered.

・ Sentiments: Represent the terminal, cognitive, and sequential reprocessing of various primary emotional schemas. Unlike pure emotions, sentiments dress themselves in cultural structures, moral codes, and social stereotypes (performing rage, anxiety, sacrificial goodness, shame, victimhood, pity, romantic love).

Sentiments are the output of an experience that is not merely individual, but eminently collective and transgenerational; they are the neocortical "consequence" and narrative of primary emotional dynamics.

To dwell on the sentiment, to analyze it, or to attempt its resolution without identifying the underlying limbic vectors that generated it is a logical error that leads to zero functional evolution in the understanding of self and others. Primary emotions, by converting into sentiments, manufacture communication in its entirety: verbal enunciation, para-verbal setup, and, most crucially, non-verbal meta-communication and communicative intention.

                        [EXTERNAL/ PHENOMENAL STIMULUS]

                                      │

                                      ▼

                        [LIMBIC SYSTEM / AMYGDALA]

                      (Binary Arousal: Curiosity vs. Primary Fear)

                                      │

         ┌────────────────────────────┴────────────────────────────┐

         ▼                                                         ▼

[IMMEDIATE SOMATIC DISCHARGE]                                                                                       [NEOCORTICAL REPROCESSING]

  - Muscular Apparatus (Action)                                                                                                 - Moral Grid & Stereotypes

  - Enteric Brain (Viscera)                                                                                                          - Construction of SENTIMENT

         │                                                         │

         └────────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────┘

                                      ▼

                        [FINAL COMMUNICATIVE EMISSION]

                    (Screened Verbal Stream + Meta-communication)

1. A Critique of Paul Ekman’s Neuro-Cultural Theory

The renowned model formulated by psychologist Paul Ekman (the neuro-cultural theory of emotions) marked a historical milestone by cataloging emotions into simple (anger, fear, sadness, joy, disgust, surprise) and secondary (shame, jealousy, gratitude, remorse, pride, embarrassment). However, the POMM framework highlights the intrinsic limitation of these studies: they exclusively analyzed the expressive and signaling output of a pre-structured behavior—meaning the terminal, communicative phase of the process.

Modern mind mechanics demonstrate that Ekman’s nomenclature does not describe emotions at their root; rather, it photographs Neurocultural Sentiments. The true biological engine resides within the preactivation (arousal) of the Limbic System, driven uniquely by two primary internal forces: Evolutionary Curiosity and Fear.

The neurocultural sentiment is merely the final output of this primary energetic imbalance, subsequently translated into cognitive states and stereotyped behaviors validated by the group. Classical studies omitted this analysis because they failed to consider the pre-constituted inner setup of the subject (the projection) and how it preemptively formats the reading of reality.

The activation of sentiments (such as romantic love, rage, or shame) can force impulsive behaviors even when the cerebral cortex attempts to rationalize the legitimacy of an appropriate reaction. In this friction, the individual experiences the weight of their projective inadequacy, lacking the kinetic force to execute their real volition or, frequently, failing even to recognize it. The regulation of behavior does not occur on the plane of sentiment, but within the geometric construction of projections, which extract from experience, morals, and culture the specific parameters required to generate action.

2. Unconscious Pre-Programming and Memory Stabilization

In the development of its identity, the mind is biologically programmed to map and internalize the normative and behavioral languages of the entourage. This process occurs by associating sequences of primary (Limbic) emotions with the behaviors observed in the caregivers, crystallizing a specific relational posture.

The completion of identity responds to a strict geometric-linear law:

$$\text{Systematic Repetition} \longrightarrow \text{Feedback Verification} \longrightarrow \text{Predictability} \longrightarrow \text{Memory Stabilization}$$

After a critical number of repetitions, if the environmental feedback remains stable and predictable, the memory of that specific experiential domain stabilizes permanently.

However, subsequent experiences do not serve the function of modifying the acquired framework, but only of expanding, enriching, and adapting it via projection. The Emotional Model pre-determines a precise balance or imbalance of equilibrium: an absolute unconscious pre-programming that establishes how we will behave and which specific feedbacks we will select and isolate within the environment.

The adult never communicates neutrally; even within the most automated streams, an internal evaluative system (a component of the Superego) constantly monitors and verifies that events flow in the direction dictated by the model. Primary emotions operate as an omnipresent, subterranean engine that culture has untrained us from listening to.

When the variable equilibrium between Evolutionary Curiosity (attraction) and Fear (adaptive regulator) becomes unstable, the individual registers this internal friction as an apprehensive dynamic or anxiety. This state must not be interpreted as a pathology or a system defect; on the contrary, it must be understood as an active difficulty in evaluative orientation. The organism is caught in tension between the area of exploratory interest and the dread of adaptive consequences, indicating a biological attempt to evolve a specific skill.

3. Distinct Somatization: Muscular Apparatus vs. The Enteric Brain

Primary emotional activity discharges in a distinct manner across two primordial interactive areas of the organism's physical structure:

A. The Muscular Apparatus (The Kinetic Response)

The skeletal and internal abdominal musculature activates when the received stimulus is associated, within the experiential archive, with a physical action response. In nature, every decoded stimulation mandates a compulsory kinetic triad: freezing, flight, or fight. In contemporary humans, direct action is frequently inhibited by social regulations, yet the adrenaline discharge nonetheless puts the musculature on pre-alarm, manufacturing tensions and rigid postures engineered to actively compensate for the demands of the stimulus.

B. The Visceral Area (The Enteric Brain)

The gastrointestinal system (the Second Brain theorized by neurobiologist Michael Gershon of Columbia University) activates when the emotional stimulus originates from an abstract, projective, or symbolic evocation—scenarios where the organism lacks an immediate or linear physical reaction to execute on the field.

These two somatomotor areas can be recruited simultaneously; however, on the plane of cognitive consciousness, the person will be unable to decode the complexity of this biomechanical map, perceiving exclusively a generic representation of fear or anxiety (the sentiment).

4. Mechanical Decoding of a Neurocultural Sentiment: Joy

Asserting that all complex sentiments can be reduced to the binary-proportional combinations of Fear and Evolutionary Curiosity does not trivialize human expressiveness; it isolates its elementary mechanical formula. Let us examine, as a case study, the sentiment of Joy.

Joy apparently manifests in heterogeneous contexts: an unexpected surprise, the achievement of a strenuous goal, or the perception of the positive exceptionality of a fact. The common mechanical element is the encoding of an exceptional positive condition relative to the statistical normality of the model.

To generate joy, the mind must simultaneously execute three precise computations:

1. Dominance of Attraction: The limbic arousal must register a clear dominance of Evolutionary Curiosity (if fear dominated, the exact same novelty would be encoded as a threat or an intrusion).

2. Discrepancy Calculation (Projection): The system identifies a sharp differential deviation between the expected event (normality) and the experienced situation (the exception).

3. Valorial Attribution (Superego): A moral and cognitive encoding intervenes, absolutizing the event within the scale of social and ideological values of the group.

The Paradox of Rank in Joy

Consider the awarding of a medal of valor. If the recognition touches an individual whose model already projects a self-image of social superiority, the event is registered as coherent with normality; the subject will be satisfied, but joy as an emotional spike will not be produced, for the projective discrepancy is missing.

Conversely, if the same medal is awarded to a subject formatted upon a deep sense of social marginality and inadequacy, the energetic output will be explosive. The unexpected recognition temporarily heals the social lacuna from which the individual suffers: the geometric distance between the deficit and the prize is at its maximum, unleashing the sentiment of joy.

5. The Social Encoding of Happiness and the Inhibition of Solitude

Being bound to the unexpected satisfaction of a need and to competitive dynamics (the measurement of one's value as greater or lesser by comparison with the rank of the other), joy activates sharp escalations of the primary emotion within the limbic system. The sudden novelty stimulates the alarm system (fear of the new) to the point where the subject in a state of joy, enthusiasm, or happiness expresses metabolic pressure through the exact physical signals of apprehension: motor agitation, tachycardia, exaggerated proactivity, convulsive laughter, or crying.

The more unexpected the scenario, the more violent the enthusiasm; the baseline parameter regulating the intensity of the sentiment is directly proportional to the prior, pre-constituted degree of self-inadequacy perception.

These complex sequences develop almost exclusively within a collective context, producing the non-verbal communication required to transmit the meaning of the sentiment to the onlookers in order to extort their validation. When the same energetic imbalance occurs in the absolute absence of sociality (in a solitary context), the communication of the sentiment is drastically reduced, stripped of its relational audience.

Experiencing joy in solitude is generally registered by the organism as unpleasant or incomplete: the system is driven by an urgent necessity to communicate it to someone, because joy and happiness (as well as unhappiness) are devices entirely tethered to the social encoding of success, frustration, and rank.