Emotional excitability in psychology. What is this, definition of high, low

The human brain is not capable of solving two problems at the same time. New technologies glorify multitasking, but research provides clear evidence that this approach reduces productivity and increases errors. Why it's better to do one thing, why we don't remember details well, and why emotional arousal is useful - T&P publishes a chapter from the book by molecular biologist John Medina, “Brain Rules. What you and your children should know about the brain,” which was published by Mann, Ivanov and Ferber.

As you read this paragraph, millions of sensory neurons in your brain light up simultaneously, trying to get your attention.
Only some of them succeed in transmitting the message to consciousness, the rest are partially or completely ignored. It's amazing how easily this balance can be maintained, effortlessly giving airtime to one of the many messages that were previously ignored. (As you read this sentence, are you aware of where your elbows are?) Attention-grabbing messages are associated with memory, interest, and consciousness. What we pay attention to often depends on memory. In everyday life, we use previous experiences to determine what to pay attention to. Different environments come with different expectations, a fact demonstrated by physical scientist Jared Diamond in his book Guns, Germs and Steel. He described a journey through the jungles of New Guinea. Compared to Westerners who have been schooled since childhood, New Guineans demonstrate very modest academic abilities. But they are by no means stupid. They are able to detect subtle changes in the jungle, which helps in tracking down a predator or finding the way home. They know which insects it is better not to touch and where to find food; they can easily build and destroy a dwelling. Diamond had never been to such places before, so he did not have the ability to pay attention to such things. The result of its testing on such tasks would be very low.

“Novel cues—unusual, unpredictable, or different—are a great way to trigger a chain reaction of attention, that is, interest.”

Culture matters, even if the physical component is not much different. For example, urban residents in Asia pay particular attention to the image of their surroundings and the relationship between objects in the foreground and background. But urban Americans do not. They pay attention to the central objects and then to the background; their sensory perception is much weaker. Such differences affect whether a business presentation or school lecture will capture the audience's attention.

Fortunately, regardless of the type of culture, all people have something in common. For example, it has long been known that interest or importance of information is inextricably linked with attention. Scientists sometimes call this connection activation. How exactly this happens still remains a mystery. Does the attention generate interest? It is common knowledge that the brain constantly scans sensory perception for potentially interesting or important events. Very important events are given special attention. But is the reverse process possible? Can attention create interest?

Marketers believe this is possible. They are well aware that new signals—unusual, unpredictable, or different—are a great way to trigger a chain reaction of attention, that is, interest. A striking example of this is the print advertisement for Sauza Conmemorativo tequila. The poster depicts an unkempt, bearded old man wearing a wide-brimmed hat, smiling to show off his only tooth. Next to it is the following inscription: “This man has only one flaw,” and below it is written in large letters: “Life is harsh. Tequila shouldn't be like this." Defying most marketing strategies aimed at a group of twenty-somethings dancing at a party, the ad was highly effective and generated public interest.

Of course, for something to attract our attention, we must understand what it is about. Can you imagine how difficult it is to study such a short-term phenomenon as attention? Scientists do not know exactly in which part of the brain the alchemical process of perception occurs. (Some evidence suggests that this process is controlled by multiple brain systems.) We have a long way to go to understand its mechanism.

The famous British neurologist and brilliant inventor, Dr. Oliver Sacks, studied perception. In the book “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat,” which became a bestseller, he described an intriguing case from his practice. One of the doctor's patients, a sweet elderly woman, intelligent, well-spoken and with a great sense of humor, suffered from a lesion in the back of her brain, which caused an unusual disorder: she could not focus her attention on things to her left. She recognized all objects in her field of vision on the right side and could apply lipstick correctly on the right side. She only ate from the right side of her plate, so she complained to the hospital staff that her portions were too small. Only after the plate was unwrapped and the food came into view to the right could she see it and continue eating.

Such cases are of great value to doctors and scientists. When a certain part of the brain is damaged, it becomes clear that behavioral deviations are associated precisely with its functioning. Studying a patient population as large as Dr. Sachs's provides an overview of which areas are involved in attentional engagement. The brain is divided into two hemispheres that perform different functions, and patients experience different disorders depending on which part is affected. Marcel Mesulam from Northwestern University discovered that there are separate centers of visual attention in the hemisphere. A small center in the left hemisphere is responsible for visual perception of objects in the visual field on the right. The global visual center is located in the right hemisphere. According to Mesulam, lesions of the left hemisphere are less critical for health, since in general it is the right hemisphere that provides visual perception.

Of course, vision is only one of the human senses. Smells and sounds are also analyzed by the brain. However, we are also aware of the internal psychological state created by various events and feelings without the specific influence of external sensory stimuli. What happens in our brain when we pay attention to something?

Thirty years ago, scientist Michael Posner developed a theory of attention that is still relevant today. Posner began his research career as a physicist at Boeing shortly after graduating from college. He made his first contribution to science by exploring the possibility of reducing the noise level of an aircraft engine to ensure passenger comfort. You can thank Posner for this, as his research now offers relative peace of mind during flight, even if the roaring turbine is just a few meters away from the passenger. Apparently, his first job aroused his interest in how the brain processes various information. He defended his doctoral dissertation based on this important problem. Posner proposed that a person pays attention to something thanks to three separate but closely interconnected brain systems, which he jokingly called the Trinity.

One fine Saturday morning, my wife and I were sitting on the terrace of our house and watching a blackbird drinking water from a special bird trough; suddenly something whistled overhead. Looking up, we saw a red-tailed owl, which flew like an arrow from a nearby tree to attack a helpless blackbird. Grabbing his prey by the throat, he began to rise upward, and drops of blackbird blood fell on our table. This end to a serene pastime was a reminder of the cruelty of the real world. We were dumbfounded.

In Posner's model, the first brain system functions like a security guard in a museum, performing two types of duties: observation and warning. The scientist calls it an alarm and activation system. It monitors the sensory aspect of normal activities. This is the overall level of attention our brain pays to the world; this state is called immanent activation. My wife and I used this system while drinking coffee and watching blackbirds. If the system detects something unusual, such as a red-tailed owl flying, it sends an alarm to the entire brain. Then the process of phase activation, that is, special attention, starts.

After the alarm, we focus on the stimulus that activated the second system. We can turn our heads towards the signal, listen, perhaps move closer or further away. That's why my wife and I stopped looking at the blackbird and turned our attention to the shadow cast by the owl. The goal of this process is to obtain more information about the stimulus so that the brain can decide how to act next. Posner calls this an orientation system.

The third system, or execution system, controls subsequent behavior. It involves prioritizing, improvising, controlling impulses, weighing the consequences of actions, or increasing attention. In my wife and I’s case, it was stunned.

Thus, we are able to recognize new signals, rush towards them and make decisions about further actions depending on the nature of the stimuli. Based on the model of brain functioning and attention proposed by Posner, a number of significant discoveries in the field of neuroscience were made, and hundreds of behavioral reactions were identified. Four of them have particular practical value: emotions, determination of meaning, multitasking and time orientation.

Events that evoke emotions are remembered better than neutral, ordinary events. This may seem obvious, but this opinion underestimates the scientific aspect, since experts are still debating what emotions are. In our opinion, it is very important to find out what impact emotions have on the learning process. An emotionally charged event (usually called an emotionally competent stimulus) is processed by the brain better than all other external stimuli. An emotionally charged event remains in the memory longer, and memories of it are clearer than ordinary incidents.

This human characteristic is effectively used in television advertising, which, of course, causes a lot of discussion. Let's look at an advertisement for the Volkswagen Passat. The video begins with two men sitting in a car, having a lively conversation about the fact that one of them constantly uses the parasitic word “as if” in his speech. The viewer then sees from the passenger window as another car suddenly appears directly in front of them. They crash into it. Screams and the sound of breaking glass are heard. The camera then shows the men being thrown around in the car and the car being crumpled. In the last frame we see men standing near a crumpled car. The paraphrased expression “Safety exists” appears on the screen. The video ends with a picture of the Passat receiving five stars in side impact crash tests. This commercial is memorable, even moving, even though it lasts only 30 seconds, because it is based on an appeal to emotions.

“Having excellent matching abilities, we are constantly looking for similarities in our environment and trying to remember what we believe we have seen before.”

But why does this work? This process involves the prefrontal cortex, the only area of ​​the human brain that controls executive functions such as problem solving, focusing, and suppressing emotional impulses. If you imagine that the prefrontal cortex is the chairman of the board of directors, then the cingulate gyrus is her personal assistant. The assistant performs a certain filtering function and helps maintain communication with other parts of the brain - especially with the amygdala, with the help of which emotions are created and stored. The amygdala is filled with the neurotransmitter dopamine and uses it like a secretary uses sticky notes. When the brain recognizes an emotionally charged stimulus, dopamine is released, which is involved in the process of remembering and processing information, as if posting notes “Remember this!” Having received such a chemical note regarding certain information, the brain processes it more carefully. This is what every teacher, parent or advertiser strives for.

Emotionally charged stimuli can be divided into two categories: events that have individual meaning for a person, and events that are perceived equally by all people.

When my grandmother got angry (which was rarely), she would go into the kitchen and loudly wash all the dishes in the sink. If there were pots and pans among these dishes, she would deliberately knock them together as she stacked them. With this noise, she demonstrated to the entire apartment (if not the entire residential building) her frustration or dissatisfaction. To this day, at the sound of loud clanking pots and pans, I again get an emotional signal - a fleeting feeling that I am in danger. My wife, whose mother never expressed her feelings in this way, does not associate the noise of dishes with emotions. This is an example of John Medina's unique emotional stimulus.

Universal stimuli come from our evolutionary heritage and therefore have powerful potential for learning and work. It is not surprising that they closely follow Darwin's theory of the struggle for existence. Be that as it may, the brain will definitely analyze the following questions:

-Can I eat this? Could it eat me?

-Can I be friends with this? Will it be friends with me?

-Have I seen this before?

Those of our ancestors who did not remember their experiences of encountering danger or foraging for food did not live long enough to pass on their genes. The human brain has many finely tuned systems for reproduction and danger recognition. (The robbery story must have caught your attention, which is why I started this chapter with it.) With our superb matching abilities, we are constantly looking for similarities in our environment and trying to remember what we think we have seen before.

One of the best television ads used all three principles. In 1984, Steven Hayden created an advertisement for the Apple computer. The ad won all sorts of awards and set the standard for Super Bowl advertising. At the beginning of the video, we see a blue hall filled with many identically dressed people who look like robots. Flash forward to 1956 and we imagine these people watching a movie about 1984. The face of a man is shown on the full screen, from whose lips the phrases fly out: “Information cleansing!” and “Unification of thought!” The people in the room absorb these messages like zombies. The camera then pans to a girl in sportswear, holding a sledgehammer, running across the hall. She's wearing red shorts - the only splash of color in the entire video. Running down the center aisle, she throws a sledgehammer at the Big Brother screen. The screen explodes and a blinding light floods the hall. Then we see the inscription: “Apple Computer will introduce the Macintosh on January 24th - and you will understand why 1984 will not be like “1984.”

All of the above aspects are involved here. There is nothing more terrible than the totalitarian society described by George Orwell in the novel 1984. Gym shorts add a little sex appeal; however, there is another implication. It turns out Mac is a girl. So, so, so... And IBM, therefore, is a guy. In the 1980s, women gained new rights and the war of the sexes came into focus. Advertising is replete with different semantic messages. Many people have read the book “1984” or watched the movie. Moreover, computer-savvy people immediately recognized the allusion to IBM, since the company was often called the Blue Giant due to its huge sales volumes.

In advertising, it is the emotional appeal that is remembered better than other details. And there are reasons for this. The brain remembers the emotional components of an experience better than other aspects of it. It's possible to forget the small details of a minor accident, but it's easy to remember the fear you felt when trying to pull over to avoid a collision.

According to research, the emotional response focuses attention on the “gist” of the experience, discarding the details. Many scientists believe that memory tends to retain the most important things we encounter, rather than the details. Over time, the details can be restored in memory if you remember the essence. Consequently, a person’s head tends to be filled with a generalized representation of concepts or events, rather than with insignificant details that fade into oblivion. I'm sure that America's favorite game, Jeopardy! exists because we admire people who can do the reverse operation.

Of course, at work and at school, detailed knowledge is very important for success. Interestingly, you can learn to remember details based on meaning. We know this well thanks to the chance encounters between a brain scientist and a waiter in the 1980s.

Watching JC take orders is like watching Ken Jennings play Jeopardy! JC never writes anything down, but he's never made a mistake with an order. The menu offers guests over five hundred different dishes (hot appetizers, side dishes, salads, etc.), which in itself is quite impressive. The waiter takes orders from twenty people and is not mistaken even by a fraction of a percent. JC worked at a restaurant frequented by University of Colorado brain researcher Anders Ericsson. Noticing JC's unusual abilities, Ericsson asked for permission to study him. The secret of the waiter's success lay in a well-developed organization system: he always divided the customer's order into various categories, such as appetizers, temperature, side dish. And then he coded the specific order using a letter system. Blue cheese salads were designated by the letter "G", the Thousand Islands dish was designated by the letter "T", and so on. He used the same code for other dishes, and then assigned letter codes to a specific visitor and remembered them that way. The semantic hierarchy allowed him to remember details with ease.

“Whether you are a waiter or a brain scientist, if you strive for precision in detail, do not start remembering details. Focus on the key idea and build details around the main concepts."

JC's strategy is based on a principle well known to the scientific community: memory is reinforced by associations between concepts. The experiment was carried out hundreds of times, and the result was always the same: logically grouped words were remembered better than randomly presented ones, on average by 40 percent. This question fascinates scientists to this day. Including associations in data representation increases the number of objects remembered. More intellectual baggage should make learning more difficult, but research suggests the opposite. We are able to reduce the meaning of several words to one - this makes it easier for the brain to remember details. Therefore, the meaning is above the details.

John Bransford, a talented researcher and author of the best-selling book How People Learn, once wondered: What separates the novice from the expert in a particular subject? Bransford identified six characteristics, one of which relates to our question: “Knowledge (of specialists) is not simply a list of facts and formulas on a particular topic; on the contrary, they are organized around a central concept, or concept, which leads their thought to a specific area.”

Whether you're a waiter or a brain scientist, if you strive for precision in detail, don't start memorizing the details. Focus on the key idea and build details around the main concepts.

Multitasking is a myth. The brain can only focus on one thing at a time. At first glance, this is an incorrect statement: after all, some things can be done at the same time, for example, walking and talking. Or let's say the brain controls your heart rate when you read a book. Pianists play simultaneously with their right and left hands. Of course, all this applies to multitasking. But I'm talking about the brain's ability to pay attention to something. You are trying to forcefully use this resource while listening to a boring lecture at school. The same thing interferes with the flight of thought during an uninteresting presentation at work. Attention cannot be paid to different things at the same time.

I recently agreed to help a friend of my high school son's homework with homework, an experience I will never forget. Eric had been working on his laptop for about half an hour when I entered the room. He had an iPod hanging around his neck, and the voices of Tom Petty, Bob Dylan and Green Day could be heard from his headphones; With his left hand he tapped out a rhythm. At least eleven windows were open on the screen, in two of them there was active correspondence with friends from the MySpace network. In another window, an image from Google was loading. In the background of the window was an image that Eric was redoing for a friend on MySpace, and in another, a paused tennis video game.

Somewhere in the midst of all these tasks, a word processing program was launched containing a document for which my assistance was needed. “Music helps me concentrate,” Eric said while talking on his cell phone. “I’m doing fine at school, I’m just stuck.” Thank you for coming". He's really stuck. Eric read a sentence or two, then started typing a message into MySpace, then checked to see if the download was finished, and then went back to work. Of course, he was not focused on the task. Does he remind you of someone you know?

Research has put an end to this debate by proving that humans are not capable of multitasking. The brain is not designed to process multiple attention-demanding signals simultaneously. Eric, like the rest of us, simply jumped from one thing to another. To understand this, we need to study the third component of Posner's Trinity - the execution system. Let's look at how it works for Eric when he is trying to work on a task and this process is interrupted by the message “You have received an email!” from his girlfriend Emily.

Definition

In twentieth-century psychology there are several main schools of psychology. Therefore, the definition of emotional arousal may vary.

Behaviorism or pragmatic psychology

This school was founded by D. Watson. Its main idea is that a person at birth has only 3 instincts - sexual, fear and rage. The remaining emotions that appear are only a conditional acquired version of the main instincts.

Emotional excitability in behaviorism is a reaction to the influence of external stimuli that appears throughout a person’s life.

Gestalt psychology and emotional excitability

Excitability in psychology, according to Gestalt supporters, is accumulated energy that allows you to change the distance when in contact with the outside world. Emotional excitability is considered a complex emotion, which consists of several simple ones.

This is fear and anger. These two emotions reach their toxic state when a person is no longer able to control himself. Rage and rage appear.

Emotional excitability and psychoanalysis

The founder of psychoanalysis is Sigmund Freud. According to followers of Freudianism, human consciousness is not the limit of our psyche. Most of human emotions are hidden in the unconscious part.

Emotional excitability is one of the unconscious reactions of a person to environmental influences. A person can cope with some manifestations of emotions on his own, but when excitability reaches its peak, psychoanalysis will help the person cope. He will answer the question of where emotions such as rage and anger came from.

Humanistic psychology

The principles of humanistic psychology are acceptance and love for each individual person. The motto of supporters of humanistic psychology is “Psychology for man, not man for psychology.”

The founders of the humanistic school are Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers. Emotional excitability, in their opinion, is only a person’s defensive reaction, which appears due to fear. This is where tough behavior and aggressiveness comes from.

Emotional excitability in psychology

It is also worth remembering that in humanistic psychology, each emotion is unique to each person. The same condition can occur in completely different ways in people. Supporters of humanism believe that goodness and tranquility can be “pulled” out of every person by providing him with an atmosphere of security.

Treatment for emotional illness

Treatment for emotional excitability should be started immediately. Moreover, it does not include supernatural procedures that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

So, first of all, you need to establish contact with the “patient” so that he can completely trust you.

A person facing this problem must also be prescribed the correct diet. It is necessary to exclude products that contain caffeine. You cannot watch films and TV shows with elements of violence and cruelty. This may make the situation worse. It is necessary to provide the most comfortable place to sleep and constantly ventilate the room in which a person with emotional excitability is located. The scale of this problem can be so high that it is better not to leave him alone. It is unknown when the next attack will occur.

It’s rare, but there are cases when a doctor prescribes sleeping pills so that a person can relax and get a good night’s sleep.

Kinds

Excitability in psychology is divided into 2 options – low and high.

High

In psychology, excitability is an instant reaction to an external stimulus. From a state of rest, a person instantly moves into a state of active emotion. These emotions include anger, rage, intense joy, and fear.

The person’s condition at this moment may not be entirely adequate. A person at such a moment cannot reasonably assess the situation; he is overly impulsive, sometimes aggressive. Increased emotional excitability often becomes an obstacle to building healthy interpersonal relationships.

But it is worth noting that with increased emotional excitability, a person “flashes up” almost instantly to any type of influence from the environment, and also quickly “cools down”.

People with increased emotional excitability can be described as hot-tempered and restless. A person is often in a state of irritation. Moreover, most often the source of irritation does not correspond to the strength of the reaction that manifests itself in a person.

This type of people is also characterized by low team spirit and conflict, where they will be the provoking party.

In a calm state, a person is absolutely adequate. He is friendly and makes contact. But he quickly loses his temper.

Such people often fall into the Karpman triangle. “Emotional swings” during the period of active reaction make a person an “executioner,” or in other words, an abuser. The executioner puts emotional pressure on the second person, humiliates, and carries out psychological violence. Then the transition to reducing the reaction occurs. And the person already becomes a victim.

He feels fear and anxiety. Therefore, he begins to feel sorry for himself, blaming other people for his inappropriate behavior. The second person can act as a rescuer. He will try to pull the person out of an aggressive state. Roles can change between two people. Also, all 3 roles can be in one person’s head.

Low

The second type is characterized by reactions opposite to the first type. Most often, phlegmatic people are people with reduced emotional excitability. The chain of occurrence of a reaction stretches for a very long time. People with reduced emotional excitability are considered cold-blooded.

But, if in the first type of excitability, people quickly moved into a state of emotional reaction, and also quickly calmed down. Then, with reduced emotional excitability, a person takes a long time to switch to an active reaction. But it is also difficult for him to quickly “cool down” from his emotions.

Characteristics and properties

Increased excitability has the main characteristics in psychology:

• This is the rapid occurrence of an active reaction.
• The same rapid decay of the reaction.
• Great intensity of experience.
• The expression of one's emotions is very violent (excessive aggression, fear, uncontrollable anxiety, unbridled joy).
• Lack of conscious control at the time of active reaction. A person stops consciously looking at the situation and acts “on emotions.”
• Attention is focused only on the source of irritation, on what provokes the occurrence of an emotional reaction.
• The ability to switch attention decreases.
• After the reaction “fades away,” the person feels tired, lacks strength, and often feels remorse.

Reduced emotional excitability has the following characteristics:

• The reaction to external stimuli occurs very slowly, sometimes not at all.
• Detachment of a person from society.
• Deep experience of emotion, if it arises.
• Long-term attenuation of the reaction (a person moves away from his experiences for a long time).

Such reactions in psychology are called affectivity. According to V. Witwicki (founder of the theory of kratism), affectivity is a sensory state of a person in which his emotions acquire significant strength, thereby disrupting mental life. A.G. Fortunatov (a Soviet psychologist who studies emotional reactions) called emotion a slight excitement, and affectivity a storm.

Forms of manifestations

Excitability is the following manifestations in psychology:

1. The person is often irritated.

2. Reduced performance, due to the fact that a person focuses on the source of irritation, attentiveness decreases.
3. Among the physical manifestations, muscle spasms are observed. Most often these are the muscles of the shoulder complex and the muscles of the face. Muscle spasms occur due to the fact that a person is often tense.
4. Low contact with the outside world. It is difficult for a person to adapt to society, since he is a provocateur of groundless conflicts.

How low excitability manifests itself:

1. Lack of response to stimulus.
2. Withdrawal from society.

Reduced emotional excitability does not mean that a person cannot fall into a state of rage or anger. The difference is that in a person with reduced activation of the reaction, the process from a state of rest to a “storm of emotions” is slow. But at the same time, the reaction may take a long time.

Is hospitalization necessary?

It is necessary to hospitalize a person who suffers from emotional excitability only after the doctor has taken all possible measures to treat him and has not noticed a single result. Then hospitalization in the psychiatry department is necessary.

Patients who pose a threat to both their lives and the lives of others require special attention. And people whose relatives received a message that their loved one needs hospitalization.

Diagnostics

Representative of Soviet psychology Smirnov B.N. developed a method for determining the level of excitability called “Emotional excitability - balance.”

In order to find out the level of excitability, you need to answer the test questions with monosyllabic answers - yes or no. The test contains 15 questions with which you can find out how often a person feels guilty, how often he feels irritated, and what kind of relationship he has with the world around him.

The results of the test are a scale from 0 to 20 points, where 0-3 points are very low excitability, 8-13 are average excitability, 18-20 points are very high excitability.

The second indicator in the test is sincerity. It is assessed on a scale from 0 to 8 points. If sincerity is 7 or less, then the probability of a correct diagnosis will be low.

Description of emotional disturbance

The main characteristics of such a disease are negative emotions that accompany a person everywhere, regardless of the situation. He is insecure, closed, hostile and suicidal. For these reasons, such a person cannot be left alone.

A person suffering from such emotional disorders is not aware of the risk and danger, and therefore can harm himself and the people around him. Diagnosis of the disorder is possible only at a conscious age. Since a child’s behavior can be justified by misunderstanding and immaturity. Adults mistakenly mistake a disorder in a child’s psyche for the norm, believing that this is a trait of a developing character.

Often, a person with such a disorder loses orientation in space. The symmetry of his face may be disturbed, his eyes are difficult to hold at one point, and muscle twitching in the eye area may be periodically noticeable.

Psychological theories

There are basic psychological theories of human emotions. The main ones are described below.

Evolutionary theory

This theory was created by Charles Darwin. Its meaning is that emotions are vital human mechanisms. With their help, the body adapts to various situations in life.

Rudimentary Theory of Emotions

The second theory of emotions appeared after the evolutionary theory. Proponents of positivism call emotions an “echo” of the instinctive “fight-flight-freeze” reaction of animal ancestors.

That is, a person’s aggressive behavior, characterized by active movement of the arms and raising the voice, is a reference to the “hit” instinct. A person feels fear for himself, the brain tries to protect the body and gives such a reaction. Fear can also be reflected by numbness, which can be described as “freezing.”

Psychoanalytic theory

This theory belongs to supporters of Freudianism. Despite the fact that the theory has little agreement with the general idea of ​​the organization of brain activity, it has attracted the interest of many scientists. The meaning of the theory is that emotions are an unconscious excess of energy, which is due to the fact that some conflict situation has been deposited in the consciousness and fixed at the level of instincts.

Cannon-Bard theory of emotion

The Cannon-Bard theory shows that emotions are inextricably linked with a person’s physical state. When an event occurs that causes an experience, nerve impulses go to the thalamus, and from there they go to the cerebral cortex and the hypothalamus.

On the one hand, it causes emotional feelings such as fear, anxiety or anger. On the other hand, it causes physiological changes such as increased heart rate, sweating, and dizziness.

Cognitive dissonance theory

The theory of Leon Festinger, an American psychologist, is that there are two types of emotions - positive and negative. These emotions are inextricably linked with the impact on the outside world. Positive emotions, such as joy, appear at the moment when a person’s planned action plan is implemented without obstacles.

Negative emotions appear when expectations and reality do not match. This theory slightly narrows the concept of emotions, without showing their versatility, but shows the dependence of the emotional state on the implementation of planned actions.

Management methods

Excitability is a state in psychology that is well corrected by self-regulation. The objectives of this method are to reduce the manifestation of stressful perceptions, reduce emotional tension, and concentrate attention.

The main task of a person with increased emotional excitability is to realize that such a condition is becoming a problem. It prevents you from living fully, developing and interacting with the world around you. After a person realizes his problem, he has a sincere desire to change the situation.

Psychological self-regulation is divided into several types:

1. Neuromuscular relaxation.
2. Ideomotor training.
3. Sensory reproduction of images.
4. Autogenic training.

Methods of influencing the emotional state can be used both in combination and separately.

The first method arose after the research of the American psychiatrist E. Jacobson. Back in the twentieth century, he identified a connection between a negative emotional state and skeletal muscles.

The method focuses on alternately tensing and relaxing individual muscle groups. The stage of muscle relaxation can be compared to a feeling of warmth, a feeling that occurs during rest. This effect causes psychological relaxation.

The technique must be learned gradually.

The training takes place in several stages:

1. Learning the skill of relaxing individual muscle groups at rest.
2. Combining the skills acquired after 1 point into one complex, which allows you to relax the entire body, or individual muscle groups, both while in a state and while performing any actions. Moreover, muscles that are not involved in movement relax.
3. The last stage is considered to be “relaxation skill”. He will teach you how to get a release even in tense situations.

Training takes from 20 minutes. up to 1 hour, depending on how many approaches are performed for each point. During each session, different parts of the body are tensed and relaxed alternately (limbs, torso, face, shoulders, etc.).

The second method is similar to neuromuscular relaxation, but the main difference is that the tension-rest process does not actually occur. You need to imagine this process in your head.

The veracity of this method is proven by the research of the famous physiologist I.P. Pavlova. The fact is that the strength of human muscle activity when mentally starting a movement is exactly the same as during a real movement.

Sensory reproduction of images lies in the fact that at the moment of emotional arousal it is necessary to imagine objects of rest and relaxation. You need to reproduce situations and people in your head that may be associated with your vacation.

For example, you need to imagine yourself sitting in a comfortable position in the forest.

Meditation has a similar method of influence. But meditations are aimed at deeper immersion and relaxation. During meditation, you focus on your inner world, on the rhythm of your breathing. Autogenic training can be called self-hypnosis.

Such training is divided into several types:

1. According to Schultz's method. This type of training involves focusing attention on a specific part of the body. For example, you need to think that your left leg is heavy. With the help of regular training, you can notice that over time there will actually be a feeling of heaviness in the limb.

2. A.I. Nekrasov developed a technique that acts in 6 directions. These influences are heaviness, warmth, breathing, heart, stomach, forehead. With the help of autosuggestion, you need to concentrate your attention first, making the body heavy, then creating a feeling of warmth. Gradually the lesson turns into focusing on breathing. Then you should concentrate on the heart, stomach and move to the forehead. The lesson includes several repetitions of the exercise.

Excitability lends itself well to methods of psychological self-regulation. Most of these methods can be implemented independently, but it will be more effective to work through your problems with a psychologist.

Disturbances in the sphere of emotional reactions

They manifest themselves as disproportionate in intensity or inadequate in quality emotional reactions in response to changes in situations that are essential for patients.

Emotional explosiveness or explosiveness . It manifests itself as an increased readiness for emotional reactions in the form of affects or disorders close to such, in response to various emotiogenic stimuli. From the outside, one may get the impression that violent emotional reactions arise over completely trivial matters (a rude word, an ironic remark, etc.). But these are usually “trifles” that greatly hurt the individual’s wounded pride. Reactions of expressed dissatisfaction, anger with verbal, and often physical aggression predominate. It happens that in such an impulse the victim is seriously injured, sometimes incompatible with life. Sometimes such patients exhibit “free-floating aggressiveness,” so that external aggression can immediately transform into auto-aggression. Such aggressors do not value their own lives or those of others. Most often they are psychopaths. During the reaction, self-control is significantly reduced, patients mostly act impulsively.

Explosiveness is often found in patients with psychopathic-like disorders of various origins (TBI, schizophrenia, etc.). E. Bleuler about and attacks of despair with attempted suicide, as well as “fear or even stuporous states.” Let us remember that we are not talking here about acute reactions to stress or reactions to repeated stress, when the first, as it were, prepared the ground for a reaction to the latter (“mental anaphylaxis”, “mental allergy”). Sometimes hysterical patients can “work themselves up” to the point of passion, especially if they have developed such a defensive reaction somewhere in the zone.

Defensiveness is emotional viscosity. It manifests itself as a persistent fixation of predominantly negative emotional reactions that arose in a situation of frustration. Typical in this case are rancor, vindictiveness, and aggressive fantasies. The patient, for example, talks about a long-standing conflict with his colleague and at the same time plays with his nodules, clenching his fists as if we were talking about a very recent skirmish. He does not forget to add that if he came across this man now, “I would settle accounts with him in full.” Another patient, 15 years later, brutally beat a classmate because he “made fun of me at school in front of everyone.” Such patients overcome mental trauma for a long time and with difficulty, unable to switch to something else. They seem to be invariant and strictly adhere to previous habits and patterns of behavior. Defensiveness can also manifest itself in relation to positive emotions and attachments. Patients say that they are “monogamous” and cannot start a second family if their husband or wife dies, they prefer to live in one place, it is very difficult for them to change their occupation, hobbies, entertainment, they keep old things for a long time, but they cannot get used to new ones. quite difficult, they listen to the same music and watch old films they once loved many times, do not include new people in their circle of friends, etc. Emotional viscosity is characteristic of epileptoid psychopaths, epilepsy, individuals with age-related personality changes, and has been described in parkinsonism and postencephalitic mental disorders.

Emotive lability is a slight, capricious changeability of mood under the influence of the most insignificant reasons, sometimes not noticed by the patient himself, much less by those around him - tachythymia. The wind rose, the sun set, rain splashed, a heel broke, the pen stopped writing, a stain appeared on the blouse - all this can significantly ruin the mood. But it easily rises if pleasant little things happen right away: the seller didn’t shortchange, someone said a compliment, smiled, gave up his seat on the bus - and the mood is good again, life makes you happy again, you like all the people, and rainbow mirages appear ahead again. In some cases, emotional lability reaches the level of emotional hyperesthesia, when the mood becomes dependent on an infinite number of random details of what is happening.

These are mimosa-type people, impressionists who cringe at a random glance, the intonation of a voice, the smell of sweat, the sight of a wilting flower. Such painful fragility makes it difficult to live, maintain smooth relationships with people, think about something serious, and generally creates a feeling of ephemeral, airy existence, in which everything is so conditional and changeable. Emotive lability is a sign of corresponding psychopathy, foreshadowing the possibility of more serious affective pathology.

Emotional incontinence is the inability to control not only your emotions, but also their external manifestations. The disorder was described by E. Bleuler in mental retardation, as well as in mentally ill people. Characterizes a significant decrease in the ability of self-control and dysfunction of higher integrative authorities.

Weakness - compassionate tearfulness, excessive sentimentality, manifested when perceiving or remembering touching events. One of the early signs of cerebral atherosclerosis. Weakness is often associated with traumatic events of the past and in such cases reminds us of the approaching symptom of “living in the past.” Weakness also occurs in states of neuropsychic asthenia, when a rational attitude to what is happening is replaced by a sterile emotional one. Excessive tearfulness often occurs with mild depression and hysteria. Sometimes tears characterize impotent anger, self-pity and resentment towards someone, a state of tenderness, a release of emotional stress, and the ability to share the suffering of someone. There are also tears of joy. The latter things do not relate to weak-willedness itself.

Weakness should not be confused with forced crying, which, like forced laughter, occurs with pseudobulbar disorders. “Hysterics” with sometimes uncontrollable sobs are associated with the fact that patients fall into the corresponding role, needing consolation, but cannot immediately get out of it on their own. Tearfulness in patients with painful insensibility does not relate to weakness: here the tears flow as if on their own, mechanically, not accompanied by the experience of corresponding emotions. There are also “made tears” - someone “forces the patient to cry or he feels that it is not he who is crying, but someone else instead of him.” Tears, like laughter, have many meanings.

Emotional dullness is the underdevelopment or loss of higher feelings while maintaining or even reviving simpler emotions. Patients lack such feelings as compassion, tenderness, a sense of justice, remorse, a sense of beauty, a religious feeling, intellectual feelings, etc. Emotionally stupid individuals are callous, cruel, not prone to repentance, many of them do not even know the feeling of shame. They do not care at all what feelings they form as parents and teachers. Many parents today teach their children to be selfish, to love only themselves, not to stand on ceremony with those who are weaker, to refuse help and to learn to say a firm “no” when asked for something, and if they hit, even when they are down. The leitmotif of such teachings is the conviction that “now you can’t live as a good person and you must win your place in the sun by force.”

Here is an example of the emotional dullness of a school teacher who, due to illness, was transferred to disability. The patient is a teacher-mathematician by profession; she taught physics and mathematics in high school. She said that she had developed a new system for teaching her disciplines and that after six months her class was unrecognizable: the eternal C students began to show miracles in solving problems. That is why - out of envy - she was suspended from lessons. Her method was to create problems of the type that would be interesting to schoolchildren. Over the course of a year, she came up with four hundred such problems and was extremely proud of it. Here are some of them. “A brick is sliding on the roof of a five-story building. The length of the sliding path is 5 m. The height of the house is H, the sliding speed is X. An old man is approaching the house at speed Y. From the place where the brick is supposed to fall, it is located at a distance B. The question is: will the brick fall on the head of this bald old man?” Or: “A climber fell from a cliff 250 m high. The question is: how long will it take him to reach the gorge and at what speed will he crash on its bottom?” The saddest thing about this story about emotional stupidity was that all the children liked the problems, and none of their parents protested.

A somewhat lesser degree of emotional dullness is designated as emotional impoverishment or impoverishment. The attachments, altruistic feelings, and empathy of such patients are significantly weakened, fragile and quickly dry up. Thus, a 30-year-old patient reports that he is still not married and does not intend to get married, that he has never been interested in anyone before, has never been in love and has never liked anyone.

“Love,” he explains, “is animal magnetism, the relationship between a male and a female. Why marry - to mate? And then, even if you get married, you have to adapt to society, and tedious legal procedures will follow.” He doesn’t think about becoming a father at all. “What is this, what is the point of having children, I don’t love them, and caring for them disgusts me.” I got a job several times, even for good pay. After 1–2 months, he quit his job, but did not formalize his dismissal, without notifying him in advance of his intention. Questions about duties, responsibilities, and the fact that he had let someone down were ignored. His motivation to leave work was: “The work is boring, monotonous, I would like bright impressions, but everything gets boring quickly.” He does not visit his parents, does not write letters to them. I had only one friend at school. He is not interested in anything at the moment, does not communicate with anyone, and practically does not leave the house. Lives on the help of his parents. At home he sometimes plays computer games, sometimes watches TV, and occasionally reads anything he can get his hands on.

“Of course, I would have to work, but there is nothing that I would like.”

The degree of emotional impoverishment varies, of course, but usually it concerns higher feelings: affection, love, friendship, gratitude, cordiality, respect, compassion. Even minor emotional changes play, according to E. Bleuler, “an outstanding role” and “especially because in any disorder it is the affective mechanisms that first reveal symptoms.”

Emotional paradox is a disproportion between the intensity of affective reactions and the objective significance of emerging situations and developing circumstances. Thus, a 31-year-old patient, a prosector at a children's hospital, is satisfied with his work, it does not depress him, does not darken his mood. Explains: “At the cellular level, the corpse is not visible.” A good photographer, he especially likes to photograph children. Loves nature, serious music, “pop music disgusts me.” Very vulnerable - “one word is enough to ruin your mood for the whole day.” Not married, never been in a close relationship: “This is pure physiology; love was invented so as not to feel like beasts.”

He tolerates the environment of the psychiatric ward (located in the general ward) calmly, is not burdened by being here, communicates with patients on equal terms, goes with them to lunch and to work. He accepted the offer to undergo treatment without resistance. Informed by the doctor that he is ill, and quite seriously. He listened to this calmly and did not ask why he was sick. He didn’t ask about the threat of this disease or how it would affect his life. I calmly accepted the offer to register for disability. For some reason I remembered that I once spent the night in the morgue for a whole month. “The only bad thing there is that it’s hot.” Another patient reports: “I’m not afraid of fights, men fight bloody, with knives, and I try to separate them. Lately, one has broken up seven fights. “More than anything else, I’m afraid of mysticism and watching thrillers.”

Another patient stoically endures the atmosphere of the department, the noise, quarrels, fights between patients, he is not traumatized by the fact of the disease (he knows what he is sick with), and the not very bright prospects of remaining virtually thrown out of life. And yet one day he suddenly became very indignant, shouted, and was agitated - the reason was that he was moved to another bed in the ward.

Irritability is a tendency to frequent and relatively shallow reactions of dissatisfaction for various, usually minor reasons, which often have no direct relationship to the true causes of the disorder. One of the most common causes of irritability is the egocentrism of patients - many of them are dissatisfied only because “everything is not done as it should be,” that is, “not my way.” An egocentric person gets irritated when people don’t listen to him: how can you not listen to me, others are capable of talking nonsense, but not me. It infuriates him when he is interrupted, although he himself does not allow anyone to open their mouth: “he also interrupts, boorish, it would be better for him to keep quiet, listen to what smart people say.” An egocentric person constantly reproaches someone, lectures, instructs, gives very impartial assessments, he is generally irritated by everything that, in his opinion, is unfair, that is, it hurts his exorbitant pride. They are irritable to the point of scandals and hysterics: they are offended that they are not appreciated, not understood, not thanked at every step, they need their path to be strewn with roses of admiration.

Often, irritability is a way of releasing accumulated resentment on someone. Resentment and tension spill out onto household members, children, animals; goes to objects too. Dishes are shattered, clothes are torn to shreds, pens and pencils are broken. One patient smashed his car with a hammer because it would not start. The transfer of emotions from one object to another is sometimes called the transportation of emotions. Patients, irritated, often want at all costs to maintain the illusion of their control over what is happening by demonstrating aggression, the strength of their ego. Irritability can be a consequence of dissatisfaction with themselves: few are able to understand themselves in order to understand what is wrong with them . The easiest way is to find the culprit in order to distract your attention from yourself with a flash of irritation, as if to crowd out dissatisfaction with yourself, and at the same time restore self-esteem. Sometimes irritation is a mild form of expressing indignation, that is, dissatisfaction with the essence of the matter, which does not affect the dignity of another; such people are often dissatisfied with themselves, or rather, with the fact that they did something wrong, at the wrong time, let someone down, and generally did something unworthy of themselves.

Usually they are immediately ready to apologize and correct the situation as soon as possible. Finally, irritability is a constant companion to asthenia - irritable weakness or “failure of the brakes” - hypersthenia. Such patients are at first indignant, then they think, and then they realize that they “got excited” and were wrong. Emotions are generally difficult to bring under control, but losing control over them is much easier. And when this happens, they always have the first word. If irritability is combined with other manifestations of increased emotional sensitivity, it may be a sign of excessive impressionability in depressed patients. So, irritability can be characteristic of patients with various disorders; we think we have identified some of its main causes.

Emotional coarsening is the loss of subtle, differentiated emotional reactions associated with a mild decrease in intelligence with organic brain damage in persons who are disharmonious in terms of premorbid personality. Due to an overly simplified, incomplete, fragmentary or one-sided understanding of what is happening, patients become quite inadequate: tactless, naked, familiar, boastful or even dishonest, since deception and cunning are in the order of things for them. Their sense of proportion, delicacy, courtesy, tolerance often betrays them; in polite society they resemble a bull in a china shop. They cannot understand that their inappropriate behavior will shock someone, may injure someone with an obscene phrase, offend or cause self-loathing. They also love to joke. But their jokes are vulgar, obscene and often repeated to the accompaniment of their own laughter.

Because of their importunity, they shamelessly barge into someone else’s conversation and try to lead him in their direction, where they wash someone’s bones. They speak loudly, a lot, as if they are trying to shout someone down. Their phraseology is very far from subtlety, the statements of prostitutes, the beginning and end of the latter are rarely on the same line of reasoning. Patients easily cross the boundaries of subordination, interfere with personal relationships with employees, and do not take into account the self-respect and ethical position of the interlocutor. And if the interlocutor is also a subordinate, he finds himself in the position of a “fool” who should not be taken into account at all. Patients are often very cheeky, they can be rude and even mock people who are dependent on them. They are incapable of dialogue: they interrupt the interlocutor, do not allow him to complete his thought, do not try to understand him, impose their opinion, and then draw dubious conclusions from the conversation, relating not so much to the problem being discussed, but to interpersonal relationships.

Subordinates rarely leave the office of such a boss with a light heart, unless they use flattery or something else to appease the “deity.” Such dialogue is somewhat reminiscent of the communication disorder in the form of double dialogue described in families of patients with schizophrenia (J. Batesson, 1956). For example, a son, rejoicing at his mother’s visit, puts his hand on her shoulder. The mother responds with a grimace of disapproval. The patient withdraws his hand, to which the mother reproaches him for not loving her. The patient blushes, but the mother reprimands him, saying that he shouldn’t be so embarrassed. In other circumstances, emotionally hardened patients may behave completely differently: they ingratiate themselves, please, humiliate themselves, agree with everything and eat with the eyes of their boss, trying to speak less so as not to inadvertently anger him. Someone rightly said: silence is a shield for a fool, a fool is smart as long as he remains silent. The essence of the matter does not change from this change of dishes. The coarsening of emotions and feelings occurs quite often and usually comes to the fore, while intellectual decline remains, as it were, in the shadows, and gross violations are often not detected.

Anniversary reactions are the appearance or intensification of feelings of grief on the date of the tragic event. This happens, for example, on Parents' Day, on days of remembrance of victims of war or terrorist attacks, disasters, etc. For example, participants in battles in hot spots get together from time to time to remember their fallen combat friends. Usually reserved in talking about mourning events with outsiders, here they indulge in detailed memories, reviving in their memory the smallest details of what happened. At the same time, it cannot be done without a feast. They drink to remember the dead, to soften the severity of the loss and to suppress the guilt of the survivors. In hindsight, it often seems that the disaster could have been prevented.

Parathymia is an inversion of emotional reactions, the replacement of adequate emotions with the exact opposite. So, a mother congratulates her daughter on her birthday as follows: “Galina! I don't wish you a happy birthday. I don't wish you happiness. I curse you, your mother’s curse is the worst!” The girl was raped in a group; her friends held her legs. In shock, she returned home, did not say anything to her loved ones, went into the bathroom, lay down in the water with her clothes on and burst out laughing. Another patient recalled that at the age of seven she fell into the water, got scared, and began to drown. She was saved by a woman passing by. Instead of the joy of salvation and gratitude to the woman, “I scolded the savior in all sorts of ways, told her that she was a fool and ugly.”

Idiosyncrasy to emotions - intolerance of various emotions: “I perceive my emotions too acutely. And good ones too. After them there is palpitation, discomfort, I feel very bad. I try not to worry or be happy at all.” This symptom seems to be the opposite of painful insensibility. In the latter case, patients suffer from the fact that they have ceased to be aware of their emotions. In the second case, on the contrary, the patient is too acutely aware of her emotions and suffers for this reason.

Emotional ambivalence is the coexistence of polar feelings in relation to the same object or phenomenon: “I seem to have two selves: one loves my mother, the other hates her... I am attached to my husband, I am tender with him and at the same time he infuriates me, I’m ready to kill him”... The patient wants his wife to die, but when he sees her dead in hallucinations, he falls into despair. The disorder indicates a splitting of the ego.

Escalation of affectivity - excessive expressiveness (in gestures, facial expressions, postures, voice intonations) in hysterics as a means of suppressing others, self-affirmation and as a mechanism for discharging excess motivation (teaching a lesson, punishing someone, moderating libido, etc.). Patients start small: they raise their voices, cry, nervously walk around the room. Then, gradually and as if involuntarily, they inflate themselves to such an extent that they can no longer get out of the role on their own unless they are saved by fainting.

Emotional burnout is a symptom complex that includes emotional and (or) physical exhaustion, depersonalization and decreased performance (Pelmann, Hartman, 1982). Emotional exhaustion is experienced as internal emptiness, depletion of affective resources, and emotional overstrain. Interest in work is lost, the patient goes there as if “to hard labor”, without inspiration and enthusiasm, but rather with disgust. Depersonalization is expressed by a feeling of depersonalization of people; they all seem equally unpleasant.

Relations with them become purely formal; employees often cause irritation, hostility, dissatisfaction and indignation. Conflicts with them are quite likely if colleagues do not realize that they are dealing with a person whose mental strength has left them. The decline in performance is associated with such reasons as the emergence of a negative assessment of oneself as a professional, self-doubt, feelings of uselessness, doubts about one’s competence, dissatisfaction with oneself, and decreased motivation to work.

Emotional burnout occurs in individuals who are in intensive and close communication with clients, patients, students, students and colleagues when providing professional assistance. Characteristic of emotional people who do not know how to protect themselves from excessive affective reactions to work situations. The surgeon should not die with every patient, the psychiatrist should not go crazy with the patient, accepting his grief as his own; The teacher should not worry about the failures of his students as if he himself received ones and twos. Work should not exceed the optimal level of tension, otherwise it will lead to fatigue and many mistakes in simple situations. The amount of workload should be rational and in no case go beyond the scope of mental hygiene. Managers do not know anything like this or do not want to know, overloading their subordinates; Usually, unfortunately, they care more about themselves and their prestige in the eyes of their superiors.

The disorder develops at the age of 30–40 years, more often in women with these professions, as well as in scientists and managers. It is sometimes called compassion fatigue. It is necessary to timely identify patients and provide rehabilitation assistance using psychotherapy and psychopharmacotherapy (small doses of antidepressants, nootropics, sleep normalization, physiotherapy, etc.).

Learned helplessness is a condition caused by “being caught in harmful, unpleasant situations” that “can neither be avoided nor prevented” (Seligman). In experiments on animals, the helplessness of the latter becomes such that even the emerging opportunity to get out of the situation is not used. Some authors see in this disorder a factor contributing to the emergence or intensification of depression. V. Frankl observed the complete loss of the ability to resist in the Nazi death camps; For some reason such prisoners were called Muslims, perhaps because they pinned their hopes only on the Almighty.

Dyshomophilia - tension, anxiety during homoerotic fantasies. It is observed in homo-, heterosexuals and even asexual people. It is recommended not to confuse the disorder with “egodystonic homosexuality.”

Emotional paralysis of Beltz (1901), or affective anesthesia. Described as a variant of psychogenic stupor without impairment of consciousness with complete shutdown of emotions without subsequent amnesia. Derealization is also observed, the patient perceives what is happening detachedly, from the outside, as something apparent to him. At the same time, he can move and behave outwardly quite adequately.

The loss of syntony manifests itself in the fact that the patient does not feel the emotional context in someone’s conversation with him, and thus cannot discover the meaning of the speech addressed to him. Thus, the patient perceives the doctor’s usual sympathetic questions about his well-being as an “interrogation” and says that “they are getting into his soul.” When asked to clarify what he means, he states that they are pestering him and showing inappropriate curiosity. He considers the advice to get medical treatment as pressure on him, and is indignant at being “dictated” or “imposed” on him. He is offended by a joke, believing that he is being “mocked”; he regards a friendly attitude towards himself as an attempt to “manipulate” him, etc. It is more often observed in patients with schizophrenia.

Vicarious pleasure is the replacement of one’s own dissatisfaction with joy or pleasure for other people. A father is happy, for example, that his son gets an A in math at school, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t do this at one time. The voyeur gets vicarious pleasure by spying on the intimate relationships of other people.

Phobic reactions are excessive fears of something, observed in timid, timid natures. It is important that such patients do not know how to assess the true extent of the danger and do not have sufficient personal experience in dealing with dangerous situations. They are not able to adequately control their fears. The best form of fear control is coping skills in threatening situations. For example, a person sees someone drowning. He runs along the shore in fear and calls for help. Another person silently rushes into the water and saves the drowning man, without feeling any fear. Phobic reactions are not obsessive, although the patient fruitlessly struggles with them, is burdened by them, would like to get rid of them, while understanding that they are something not entirely normal. In addition, he is also ashamed of his fears and tries not to tell anyone about them. V.V. Kovalev defines such fears as overvalued and exaggerated.

Hypophobia is a lack of feeling of fear, leading to an underestimation of the degree of danger or threat of any situations. Described in patients with schizophrenia, in alcoholic intoxication, and with neuroses - “thenic sting of a psychasthenic.” There are cases of complete absence of fear - anaphobia. A 30-year-old patient claims that she does not know what fear is and has never experienced it under any circumstances. She says that during her school years she went to the cemetery alone at midnight, even before school she visited the anatomy class, visited the morgue, and even took her friends there out of curiosity. She never had fears in her dreams, no matter what she dreamed. From the very beginning, she watched horror films completely calmly and said: “I don’t understand what people find scary in them.” She jumped from a parachute and “wasn’t afraid at all, even the instructor was surprised,” she drowned and “wasn’t scared at all: if I drown, I’ll drown, so that’s how it’s supposed to be.” “I wasn’t afraid of the psychiatric hospital, I came myself, what’s there to be scared of.”

Without fear, she walked at night along the unlit streets of the city, where “I know they killed, robbed, and raped.” “I’m not brave, no, I just don’t have developed fear. Well, there are people without legs, I have something similar to this.” There is also a known phenomenon called contophobia - the desire to get into dangerous situations for the sake of acute impressions that are not accompanied by fear.

Satomura syndrome (1979) is a peculiar fear of superiors or other high-ranking officials. This is the fear of appearing funny or unpleasant in their eyes. It is considered as a neurosis characteristic of the Japanese. Apparently, it occurs not only among them.

Disorders of the sense of humor are the inability to see something worthy of compassion behind the comical, playful form. First of all, the sense of humor changes when perceiving real life situations of a humorous nature. At the same time, the sense of humor in relation to oneself suffers. The perception of humor in corresponding images (cartoons, etc.) seems to be preserved to a greater extent (Bleicher, Kruk, 1986).

According to our preliminary impressions, the loss of a sense of humor first manifests itself, apparently, in the fact that when an individual meets an object of humor, he becomes very happy, his mood rises, so that he himself is not averse to making someone laugh, and then having a pleasant time the rest of time. The second, hidden level of humor is not distinguished, light sadness and in-depth reflections about human nature, and about oneself usually do not exist. The next stage of a sense of humor deficit occurs when an individual becomes funny, very funny, when he encounters manifestations of humor. He is sometimes filled with Homeric laughter, and he does not think about anything serious.

Once he starts laughing, he will do it all evening (for example, at a laughter concert) and at very dubious jokes. As soon as you provoke some “decoy duck” to laugh, the rest of the humor lovers begin to laugh together, as if on command. A funny person resembles a stoned drug addict who laughs at everything you show him. A. Maslow, meanwhile, noticed that people with a genuine sense of humor usually do not have fun and laugh, only a sad smile runs across their face. Statistics say there are only 1–3 such people per hundred. The continuing degradation of the sense of humor is expressed in the fact that the individual will laugh with pleasure when someone is laughed at. But he does not accept jokes directed at himself; moreover, he may be offended by this or, worse, get angry. Finally, humor dies when it is taken “seriously,” that is, not taken at all.

The lack of a sense of humor is especially acute in patients with schizophrenia, who are educated, intelligent, knowledgeable, but who take jokes and allegories very literally. The best sense of humor, as is well known, is developed among pessimists, who see the weaknesses and shortcomings of people better than others and, nevertheless, treat them with particular delicacy and care. However, in depressed patients, their sense of humor, like other high feelings, is blocked, which makes it extremely difficult for them to survive depression - they are deprived of the internal support that only helps people in misfortune. Patients with epilepsy are deprived of a sense of humor once and for all.

With their rigidity, getting bogged down in trifles, they do not have time to notice how this spark of God flashes over them - a moment of humor. With alcoholism, the sense of humor degrades to banality, vulgarity, cynicism with an indispensable element of greasiness - mentions of betrayal, meetings with passionate beauties and something else like that. One would like to call such humor genital. “Black humor” has only one similarity with genuine humor - the use of a comic configuration. In its depths lies not compassion, not high sadness, but merciless cynicism, ready to strike all the saints and everything that is called the existential, enduring and eternal values ​​of human existence.

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