The Aesthetics of Emotion: Up the Down Staircase of the Mind-Body (Studies in Emotion and Social Interaction)

Gerald C. Cupchik builds a bridge between science and the humanities, arguing that interactions between mind and body in everyday life are analogous to relations between subject matter and style in art. According to emotional phase theory, emotional reactions emerge in a 'perfect storm' whereby meaningful situations evoke bodily memories that unconsciously shape and unify the experience. Similarly, in expressionist or impressionist painting, an evocative visual style can spontaneously colour the experience and interpretation of subject matter. Three basic situational themes encompass complementary pairs of primary emotions: attachment (happiness - sadness), assertion (fear - anger), and absorption (interest - disgust). Action episodes, in which a person adapts to challenges or seeks to realize goals, benefit from energizing bodily responses which focus attention on the situation while providing feedback, in the form of pleasure or pain, regarding success or failure. In high representational paintings, style is transparent, making it easier to fluently identify subject matter. Machine Generated Contents Note: 1. Experiences In Life And In Art -- Searching For Lived Experiences -- Interpreting Lived Experiences -- Theoretical Perspectives On Lived Experiences -- The Aesthetics Of Lived Experiences -- The Aesthetics Of Emotion And The Mind-body Interface -- Reconciling Opposing Theories Of Emotion -- 2. Thinking Critically About Emotion Theories -- The Loss Of A Concern For Ecological Validity -- Being Sensitive To The Evolution Of Concepts -- Avoiding The Ontological Trap -- Thinking In Terms Of Complementarities -- Contrasting Intellectual Traditions: British Enlightenment And German Romantic Thought -- Goethe As A Role Model For The Poetics Of Science -- Three Facets Of An Emerging Scientific Self -- Working With Hierarchies: The Staircase Metaphor -- 3. The Depth Of Affective Processing -- Levels Of Affective Processing -- The Experience And Expression Of Real Emotions -- Explaining Emotions In Terms Of Non-emotional Processes -- Social Constructionism -- Summary Of The Nativist And Constructionist Perspectives -- Critical Reflections -- Retraining The Problem -- 4. Emotional Experiences As Reactions -- From Natural Kinds To Emotional Experiences -- Homologies As Structural Resonances Across Species, Cultures, And Time -- Fundamental Life Themes And Related Complementary Pairs Of Primary Emotions -- Juan Luis Vives (1492 -- 1540): The Psychologically Modern Mind -- The Framing And Appreciation Of Emotional Experiences -- William James's Peripheralism -- A Holistic Approach To Psychology -- The Contribution Of Organismic Psychology -- The Psychodynamic Contribution -- The Contribution Of Existential Phenomenology -- Summary And Conclusions -- 5. Antecedents Of The Motivational Action Models -- From Passion To Emotion -- Energizing Purposive Action -- The Two Faces Of Emotion And Adaptation -- Laboratory Origins Of A Dualist Model: Emotion = Cognition + Arousal -- Unfolding Purposive Behaviourism -- Eponymy And Schachter's Two-factor Theory -- The Role Of Appraisal In Feeling And Emotion -- Family Resemblances Among Theories -- 6. Emotional Phase Theory -- Contrasting Approaches To Representation -- The Reaction Model: Interpreted Situations And Emotional Experiences -- The Action Model: Appraised Situations And Motivated Actions -- The Threshold Of Awareness -- Affects, Feelings, And Emotions -- Affects -- Feelings -- Emotions -- Emotional Phase Theory -- Main Principles Of Emotional Phase Theory -- Tables Of Key Concepts -- 7. Neural Underpinnings Of Emotional Experiences And Feeling-based Actions -- Pribram And Mcguinness -- Heinz Werner: From Syncretic To Abstract Thinking -- Don Tucker: Mind From Body -- Tucker And Luu: Cognition And Neural Development -- Other Voices From Neuroscience -- 8. The Aesthetic Imagination -- Top-down Processing -- Bottom-up Processing -- Complementary Processes -- Adopting An Aesthetic Attitude -- Information Theory And The Cognitive-motivational Approach -- A Holistic Gestalt Approach -- The Psychodynamic Approach -- Phenomenological And Existential Psychology -- Neuroaesthetics: Art On The Brain -- Synthesis -- 9. Affective Processes And Aesthetic Reception -- Contrasting National Cultural Traditions And The Social Self -- Optimizing Aesthetic Distance And The Personal Self -- Depth Of Affective And Cognitive Aesthetic Processing -- Feelings: Hedonic Psychophysics And Affective Covariation -- Emotional Elaboration -- Emotional Themes: Attachment, Assertion, And Absorption -- Attachment: Happiness And Sadness -- Assertion: Fear And Anger -- Absorption: Interest And Disgust -- High And Popular Art Culture Wars -- 10. The Aesthetics Of Emotion As Analogy And Metaphor -- Analogies And Metaphors -- Analogical Processes -- Metaphorical Processes -- Content- And Act-oriented Metaphors Related To Emotion And Aesthetics -- Relational Thinking In The Generation And Reception Of Metaphors -- Interanimations Between Subject Matter And Style -- 11. Creative Practices Of Contemporary Artists -- The Curatorial Process: Ihor Holubizky -- Focusing On Artistic Practice -- Tony Scherman -- Harry Tiefenbach -- Lanny Shereck -- Michael Gerry -- Bob Kussy -- Andy Patton -- Bernie Lubell -- Stacey Spiegel -- Yuval Avital -- Conclusions -- 12. The Cave Artist's Share -- Overview -- The Chauvet Cave -- A Modern View Of Cave Art -- Conventionalist And Reductionist Views Of Cave Art -- Critical Perspectives -- Tracing The Origins And Development Of Cave Art -- A New Approach To The Origins Of Cave Art -- The Emerging Image -- After The Social Brain Hypothesis: Hemispheric Integration -- Neurochemical And Epigenetic Influences -- Conclusions -- 13. Studies In Aesthetic Reception -- Overview -- Fundamental Principles -- The Empirical Narrative -- A Curated Series Of Experiments In Visual And Literary Reception -- Fundamental Perceptual Qualities: Hard Versus Soft Edges -- Edge Detection In Gestural Expressionism -- The Prefrontal Cortex: Adopting An Aesthetic Attitude, And Interpreting Soft-edge Images -- The Tao Of Aesthetics -- Judging Moral And Facial Beauty -- Feelings And Early Global Processing -- Comparing The Effects Of Allegorical Subject Matter And Rhetorical Challenges -- Generating And Receiving Interpretations Of Short Stories -- Ways Of Interpreting Figurative Scenes -- Close And Far Reading Styles -- Emotions And Feelings Elicited By Artworks -- Pace And Depth Of The Reading Process -- Comparing Fresh Emotions And Emotional Memories -- Hedonic Psychophysics And The Congruity Principle -- Scented Experiences Of Paintings -- Scented Experiences Of Literature -- Scented Memories Of Literature -- 14. In Search Of A Unified Emotion Theory -- A Social Thought Experiment -- The Contribution Of Aesthetics To Emotional Phase Theory -- The Future Of An Emotion -- The Future Of An Illusion (allusion). Gerald C. Cupchik. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Contrasting intellectual traditions: British Enlightenment and German Romantic thought -- Goethe as a role model for ''the poetics of science'' -- Three facets of an emerging scientific self -- Working with hierarchies: the staircase metaphor -- The staircase of the mind -- The staircase of the self -- The staircase of the emotions: affects, feelings, and emotions -- The bottom-up perspective -- The top-down perspective -- The neural staircase -- The staircase of the arts -- Chapter 3 The depth of affective processing -- Levels of affective processing Cover -- Half-title -- Series information -- Title page -- Copyright information -- Dedication -- Table of contents -- List of figures -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Prologue -- Schloime the Horse -- Chapter 1 Experiences in life and in art -- Searching for lived experiences -- Lebanese prisoners in Syria (translated from the Arabic) -- Escape from Kandahar City, Afghanistan (translated from the Pashto) -- Poverty of kindness in Ethiopia -- Interpreting lived experiences -- Theoretical perspectives on lived experiences -- A British perspective A German perspective -- An American perspective -- The aesthetics of lived experiences -- The ''aesthetics of emotion'' and the mind-body interface -- Aesthetic relations -- Disjunctive relations -- Holistic relations -- Reconciling opposing theories of emotion -- Chapter 2 Thinking critically about emotion theories -- The loss of a concern for ecological validity -- Representations of experiential and theoretical constructs -- Being sensitive to the evolution of concepts -- Avoiding the ontological trap -- Thinking in terms of complementarities The experience and expression of ''real'' emotions -- Paul Ekman -- Jaak Panksepp -- Carroll Izard -- Explaining emotions in terms of non-emotional processes -- James Russell and core affect theory -- Lisa Barrett and conceptual-act theory -- Dissociating lived experiences from accounts of emotional processes -- Philosophers and the problem of ''natural kinds'' -- Social constructionism -- Jim Averill -- Ken Gergen -- Summary of the nativist and constructionist perspectives -- Critical reflections -- Reframing the problem Chapter 4 Emotional experiences as reactions -- From natural kinds to emotional experiences -- Homologies as structural resonances across species, cultures, and time -- Fundamental life themes and related complementary pairs of primary emotions -- Attachment and loss -- Self-preservation and assertion -- Absorption and repulsion -- Juan Luis Vives (1492-1540): the psychologically modern mind -- The framing and appreciation of emotional experiences -- William James's peripheralism -- A holistic approach to psychology Gerald C. Cupchik builds a bridge between science and the humanities, arguing that relations between mind and body are analogous to those between subject matter and style in art. His unified emotional phase theory encompasses reactions to meaningful life events and actions, enabling people to realize goals and adapt to challenges.