Coaching with the Brain in Mind

CHAPTER 12

Neuroscience Platform—Emotions

“Rapunzel, Rapunzel, throw down your hair.” In the fairy tale, Rapunzel’s long hair allows the handsome prince to climb up to the tower and rescue her from her imprisonment. The assumption is that they were both overwhelmed by their attraction for one another. But what would have happened to the pair’s feelings after the rescue and return to safety had been accomplished? The passion of Romeo and Juliet, despite the opposition of their parents, is immortalized in drama, dance, and music, but what if the two teenagers had lived and the families had reconciled? Would the passion of the lovers have remained as strong? Emotion researchers have wondered about the passions that are aroused when they are forbidden or dangerous. In a series of experiments, they have discovered that physiological arousal, even when it has nothing to do with love or attraction—but rather with danger or rebellion—can be interpreted by our minds as overwhelming passion. If we meet an attractive person on a suspension bridge or while rappelling down a cliff, we are likely to find him or her more attractive than if we had met on solid, safe ground. In other words, emotions are not just another category of human experiences like cognition or physiology or relationships. Emotions affect and perhaps even encompass them all.

“Feeling” is a term that applies both to sensations and to emotions. At one time, sensations were treated as mere signals that convey information to ...