2 Emotions, Feelings And Sentiments
When we try to understand affectivity in its concrete expression we find that the three words in the title come up, although perhaps not all at once to everybody. We all know that there are emotions which overwhelm us and for which we have only a few labels, such as anger, fear, love. The contrast between the existence of so many words to describe plants or animals or shapes and so few for this area of experience, although it is one that we never leave, must have some profound reason. Can it be because of the amount of energy, so large in affective movements and so tenuous in thoughts concerning our perceptions of the outside world? Certainly the awareness of “mental energy� as it appears in our experience of emotions in contrast with that which appears in conjunction with our thoughts, can serve as a guide for us when we want to study that realm more closely. Emotions are obviously linked with a number of our somatic functions. That is why emotions have somatic components, visible from the outside, which are called the expressions of emotions. They help us to translate what goes on within ourselves into appearances which in turn help us suspect the state of being of those we may meet occasionally or regularly. Redness or whiteness of the face or skin convey very different information about a person to an onlooker. Relaxation or trembling, frowns or
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