Can You Really Trust Your Feelings? | Lisa Feldman Barrett & John Dunne
In this episode, Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett, a distinguished psychology professor, and John Dunne, a Buddhist scholar, challenge the Western notion of emotions as distinct from rationality. They discuss how emotions are constructed by the brain and offer strategies for mastering them, including understanding your 'body budget' and cultivating emotional intelligence.
Deep Dive Analysis
13 Topic Outline
Challenging the Western View of Emotions
Lisa Feldman Barrett's Scientific Definition of Emotions
John Dunne's Buddhist Perspective on Emotions
The Brain's Primary Job: Body Regulation and Prediction
Why Understanding Emotion Construction Matters: Discomfort vs. Suffering
Real-World Consequences of Misinterpreting Emotions
Pillar 1: Understanding and Managing Your Body Budget
Buddhist Perspective on Granular Awareness and Categorization
Pain as an Emotion and How to Deconstruct It
Pillar 2: Becoming More Emotionally Intelligent
The True Nature of Emotions from a Buddhist View
Pillar 3: Mastering Feelings in the Moment
The Upside of Unpleasant Feelings
7 Key Concepts
Classical Western View of Emotions
This view posits that emotions are pre-wired, obligatory responses (e.g., anger, fear) triggered by external events, leading to universal physical changes. It suggests emotions are distinct, basic, and separate from rational thought, often seen as a battleground between the two.
Constructed Emotions (Scientific View)
Emotions are not pre-wired but are actively constructed by the brain. The brain constantly makes sense of internal and external sensory data, knitting them together with past experience to create meaning, which sometimes results in an emotion. This process is flexible, allowing for different interpretations of the same sensory input.
Emotions in Buddhism
In classical Buddhist texts, there is no direct word or category for 'emotions.' Instead, what Westerners call emotions are viewed as 'how we are experiencing' rather than 'what we are experiencing.' They are seen as an 'affective frame' that presents content in a particular way, often exaggerating qualities and motivating behavior.
Allostasis / Body Budget
Allostasis is the brain's primary job: to predict and anticipate the body's needs, coordinating its systems (e.g., heart, lungs, metabolism) to meet those needs efficiently. The 'body budget' is a metaphor for this process, where the brain budgets resources like glucose, salt, and oxygen, with activities like learning or chronic stress being 'withdrawals' and sleep or healthy eating being 'deposits.'
Discomfort vs. Suffering
Discomfort refers to an unpleasant physical sensation. Suffering, in the Buddhist sense, adds a layer of interpretation to discomfort, such as 'it's my fault,' 'this says something about me,' or 'I have to prove myself.' Suffering is considered physically bad for you over the long run, leading to chronic stress and metabolic vulnerability.
Affect
Affect refers to the general feelings of pleasantness, unpleasantness, being worked up, or being calm. These are summary features of consciousness, always present as the brain regulates the body, and are distinct from specific emotions which are often constructed when these affective features are intense.
Emotional Granularity
This refers to the ability to construct experiences in a more specific and flexible fashion, tailoring them to the situation. It involves having a richer vocabulary of emotion concepts, including those from other cultures, to interpret internal states and external cues with greater nuance, rather than defaulting to broad categories like 'anxiety' or 'anger.'
9 Questions Answered
Emotions are not pre-wired, universal responses, but rather instances constructed by your brain. Your brain constantly makes predictions and interpretations of sensory data from your body and the world, using past experience to create meaning, which can manifest as an emotion.
In classical Buddhist texts and Tibetan culture, there is no direct word or category for 'emotions.' Instead, Buddhist philosophy focuses on 'how we are experiencing' rather than categorizing specific emotional states, viewing them as an 'affective frame' that influences perception and behavior.
Understanding emotion construction is crucial because it allows for flexibility in how we interpret experiences. This flexibility helps avoid 'suffering' (which is physically harmful) by distinguishing it from mere 'discomfort,' and can prevent misinterpretations that lead to negative outcomes in health, legal situations, and social interactions.
The brain's most important job is not thinking or feeling, but rather regulating the systems of your body (allostasis), keeping them coordinated and balanced. It constantly anticipates the body's needs and attempts to meet them efficiently, which is metaphorically referred to as managing your 'body budget.'
Chronic stress is like making continuous withdrawals from your body budget without sufficient deposits to replenish resources. Over time, this leads to an increasing metabolic deficit, which can result in metabolic diseases, depression, and anxiety, akin to being 'bankrupt' in your body budget.
Yes, pain is considered an emotion by scientific bodies. It can be managed by deconstructing it into its physical discomfort component (nociceptive signals) and separating it from the 'suffering' or panic that the brain constructs around those signals, allowing for a reduction in intensity.
Emotional intelligence involves learning to construct experiences more granularly, tailoring them to specific situations. This can be achieved by broadening one's vocabulary of emotion concepts (even from other cultures) and understanding that facial movements or vocal changes are not objective indicators of another person's inner state but rather guesses made by our brains.
One can master feelings in the moment by changing what they pay attention to, which alters the brain's regulatory efforts and provides an opportunity to feel something different. This can involve physically moving, changing one's context, or practicing mindfulness to attend to different features of the world or body sensations.
Yes, unpleasant feelings (discomfort) are not always a sign that something is wrong. They can indicate that you are doing something hard, like exercising or learning something new. Understanding this allows you to push through discomfort without constructing it into longer-term suffering.
10 Actionable Insights
1. Deconstruct Pain & Suffering
Separate physical discomfort from the added layer of suffering (e.g., ‘it’s my fault,’ ‘I’m a bad person’). Focus solely on the raw sensations of discomfort and try to pick them apart into different sensations to reduce intensity, avoid chronic stress, and potentially lessen opioid dependence.
2. Cultivate Emotional Flexibility
Actively expand your repertoire for making sense of sense data, allowing you to construct different emotions from the same physical sensations and tailor your responses to situations. This helps your brain prepare for more effective actions.
3. Manage Your Body Budget
Consciously make ‘deposits’ (sleep, healthy food, water) and be aware of ‘withdrawals’ (learning, persistent uncertainty, exercise) to maintain your body’s metabolic resources. This prevents chronic stress, which can lead to metabolic diseases and depression.
4. Practice Present Moment Awareness
When you find yourself conceptualizing emotions (e.g., ’this is anger’) and feeling compelled to act, recognize that this pulls you into the past or future. Instead, attend to the present moment, suspending conceptualization and the urge to fix things, which can lessen emotional intensity.
5. Reframe Unpleasant Feelings
Recognize that unpleasant affect or discomfort doesn’t always signal something is wrong; it can mean you’re engaged in a difficult but beneficial activity (e.g., exercise, learning, curiosity). Attempt to understand what these feelings truly signify to avoid constructing narratives that lead to longer-term suffering.
6. Expand Emotional Vocabulary
Learn more emotion words and concepts, including those from other cultures, and expose yourself to diverse people. This practice increases your flexibility in constructing experiences and tailoring them more specifically to situations, enhancing emotional intelligence.
7. Cultivate Granular Awareness
When you categorize an experience (e.g., ’that’s hunger,’ ’that’s anxiety’), pause and investigate if there’s more to it, rather than stopping attention. This granular awareness helps you avoid automatic pilot, notice exaggerations, and opens new interpretations of your experience.
8. Shift Attention, Change Affect
When feeling unpleasant, change what you’re paying attention to. Physically move your body or change your context (e.g., go for a walk). If unable, practice mindfulness by focusing on different internal or external sensations (e.g., stomach, back against chair) to alter your brain’s regulatory efforts and shift your affective state.
9. Question Others’ Emotional Assumptions
Recognize that your perception of others’ emotions (from facial movements, voice, posture) is a guess, not an objective reading. Dissolve false confidence in your ability to know their inner state, fostering more accurate and less biased interactions.
10. Investigate Emotion’s True Nature
Practice formal meditation by intentionally recalling an intense emotional memory and allowing the emotion to arise. Then, investigate the emotion itself, asking ‘What is this truly?’ to gain insight into the true nature of experience.
5 Key Quotes
Your brain is constantly trying to make sense of sense data from the world and from your own body... And your brain knits them together using your past experience.
Lisa Feldman Barrett
If I put my Buddhist hat on, as it were, like one of those nice Tibetan hats, then I don't think about emotions at all. Because there isn't any word for that in classical Tibetan texts.
John Dunne
There's a difference between unpleasantness or discomfort and suffering, suffering in the Buddhist sense. Suffering in the Buddhist sense is physically bad for you.
Lisa Feldman Barrett
Once we categorize, in a sense, we sort of stop paying attention to what's actually going on. We get caught up in the category itself and what that category tells us to do.
John Dunne
Feeling unpleasant doesn't necessarily mean that something is wrong in the world or with you.
Lisa Feldman Barrett
3 Protocols
Deconstructing Pain
Lisa Feldman Barrett- Focus directly on the discomfort of the pain, rather than distracting yourself.
- Try to pick apart the pain into different sensations.
- Attempt to separate the signals of discomfort (nociceptive signals) from the panic or suffering you are constructing with those signals.
- Sweep away thoughts like 'how much longer will this go on?' or 'why is this happening to me?'
- Be curious about the sensations themselves.
Buddhist Practice for Examining Emotions
John Dunne- Sit on the cushion in informal meditation.
- Bring up an intensely emotional memory.
- Allow the emotion and its categorization (e.g., 'I'm angry') to happen.
- Feel the emotion intensely.
- Look at the emotion itself and ask: 'What is this truly?'
- Observe the nature of the experience to gain insight into consciousness itself.
Managing Feelings in the Moment
Lisa Feldman Barrett- If possible, move your body to provide different sense data to your brain (e.g., go for a walk).
- If physical movement isn't possible, figuratively change your context by being mindful.
- Pay attention to different features of the world or specific body sensations (e.g., stomach, back pressing against a chair).
- Attempt to understand what unpleasant feelings signify, rather than automatically constructing negative narratives (e.g., recognize discomfort as a sign of doing something hard, not something wrong).