One of the consequences of being out of touch with our bodies is that we are anaesthetised to our feelings. Reduced to being rational egos, we become "one dimensional".¹

Feelings?

      What are feelings?

Thinking and feeling

      Feeling can be distinguished from thinking.

      Thinking is a self-conscious, rational process, a function of cognitive processing centres, or pathways, in the brain. Feeling, while engaging the brain, is a function of the bodyself.

      Jung argued that our lives are regulated by four functions--thinking, feeling, sensation and intuition. Two functions, sensation and intuition, are the means by which we perceive reality. The remaining two functions, thinking and feeling, help us evaluate what we perceive.

      According to Jung, one of these four functions is the dominant, or superior function. Its opposite, on the perceiving or evaluating axis, is our inferior, or least developed function. Jung also argued that we have a subdominant function, located on the alternative axis to that associated with our superior and inferior functions. If thinking is our superior function, then either sensation or intuition will be the subdominant function. If intuition is the superior function, the subdominant function will be either thinking or feeling.

      Jung argued that these functions begin emerging from the unconscious as we develop. Some remain in the unconscious, influencing our behaviour from behind a curtain of anonymity. [73] Their troublesome behaviour is an attempt to draw attention to themselves, an assertion of their right to be taken notice of.

      For example, if our superior function is thinking, we may neglect our feelings. When we are forced to respond feelingly, our responses are likely to be immature, because our feeling function is underdeveloped. We may sulk, be petulant, or bluster. On the other hand, if our thinking function is our inferior function, it may, if cornered, betray its immaturity by expressing itself stridently, mistaking opinionatedness for reason.

      It is important, therefore, when attempting to determine what we are talking about when we refer to feelings, to distinguish between the two evaluating functions, thinking and feeling.

Feelings, emotions and sentiment

      Those who process data by "thinking" it through are sometimes irritated by the comment that they are not in touch with their feelings. They imagine that their critics are suggesting that they are unaware of their emotional responses. They vigorously deny this insinuation. Locked in the debate with their protagonists over the issue, they fail to distinguish between feelings, emotions and sentiment.

      We are all subject to powerful emotions, like love, joy, anger, jealousy and envy. These emotions, however, are to be distinguished from "feelings", or from the evaluation of situations on the basis of responding feelingly to them.

      An illustration may help.

      Imagine that you are part of a community concerned for a young single mother, who is overwhelmed by her responsibilities and has indicated that she can't cope. Her home is a mess. The washing has piled up, and she can't face cooking meals for her children.

      The "thinkers" quickly devise strategies to rescue her from the catastrophe they see looming. They suggest that community members be rostered to ensure that meals are delivered to the family every evening. The "feelers", however, are horrified. They realise that this well-intentioned exercise will further depress and [74] debilitate the young woman. It will deepen her sense of inadequacy. Neither approach is superior to the other. Each results from a different way of processing the data.

      Those who are not in touch with their feelings confuse the evaluating feeling function with emotion. Some analysts feel that it is almost impossible for a "thinker" to understand what a "feeler" is talking about when she describes how she "feelingly" assesses options. Being a "thinker", who has had to come terms with his "feelings", I am inclined to agree. On the other hand, "feelers", faced with the dispassionate logic of "thinkers", feel as if they are being squashed by a bulldozer!

      Being a thinker, who has discovered how to access his feelings, I have come to the conclusion that my feelings more accurately reflect my state of being. I also have to confess that I have lost the taste for mere head-talk. Intellectual sword-play, which used to stimulate me, has lost its fascination. On reflection, I now understand that knightly skirmishes serve the interests of an uncentred ego.

      Feeling, as an evaluating function, can also be distinguished from sentiment. When we are out of touch with our feelings, the energy they generate sometimes escapes as sentiment. We cry while watching sad movies, despite the fact that similar real-life situations do not move us to the same extent.

Counter-rhetoric

      Those whose feelings have been disparaged defend themselves by going on the attack. They argue that it is thinkers who are deficient.

      Joseph Campbell suggested that when the mind dictates to the rest of the body our lives are robbed of an inherent, healthy dynamism. ² On the other hand, while the intellect can be tyrannical, and can outlaw feelings, which add richness and colour to life, uninhibited expressions of feeling, undisciplined by reflection, can be equally reductionist, off target and dangerous. Sometimes a "feeling" response represents little more than [75] unrestrained emotional discharge. These discharges can be precipitated by misperception.

      The frequency with which we misperceive situations is related to the degree to which we project our attitudes onto others. We read in their faces the emotions that are stirring in our breasts. We imagine others have adopted attitudes towards us that reflect how we feel about ourselves. We unconsciously assume that others mirror our attitudes. This projection is self-authenticating.

Love

      We should also be wary of confusing "feeling" with love.

      It is often assumed that people who are in touch with their feelings are loving, and that those who are not are not capable of loving. This is a misconception. Those who think through issues rationally may be loving, while those in touch with their feelings may have little capacity for love.

      Jung commented to participants in a dream seminar that there are women in whom the feeling function is dominant who are nevertheless cold. In such women, the feeling function lacks human qualities. He argued that we should not confuse feeling with love.³

      He went on to explain that the feeling function is concerned with values, rather than love. Love has to do with relatedness. One can process reality through one's feelings without having a capacity for relating to others. Love is associated with eros. If feelings were equivalent to the capacity to relate, or to love, then thinking types would be incapable of loving.⁴

Men and women

      Jung also argued that men generally process issues with their thinking function and women with their feeling function.

      Jung has been criticised by feminists for endorsing this distinction, as well as for what they regarded as misogynous comments.⁵ In spite of this criticism, scientific evidence is accumulating that substantiates Jung's perception. [76]

      Investigations into the sexing of the brain suggest that the circuitry of men and women's brains, together with the hormonal cocktails that power them, are sex specific. Both use different parts of the brain, and different neural pathways, to process information. This research is confirming the fact that men and women are different, and that men are generally governed more by the thinking function and women by the feeling function.⁶

      It should also be recognised that Jung did not argued that all men are "thinkers", and all women are "feelers".

      Observation confirms the fact that there are men and women who defy the stereotypes. Nevertheless, the influence of cultural stereotypes can force those who are different from the norm, both men and women, to place undue reliance on an inferior function.

      The human brain is a complex mechanism and no two brains are the same. Furthermore, each of us is a mixture of male and female. The balance is reflected in the brain's circuitry and chemistry.

Perception and emotion

      I have argued that there is a connection between thinking and feeling, between cognitive perceptions and feeling-driven emotional responses to those perceptions. The way we view a situation will have a bearing on how we respond to it.

      If I am prejudiced against somebody because of gossip, my behaviour towards them will be influenced by this prejudice.

      If I regard the world as inhospitable, my emotional responses, in dealing with others, will reflect this appraisal. On the other hand, if I find the world exciting, a place of endless adventure, I will approach life positively.

      If I consider meditation dangerous because it renders me vulnerable to Satanic influence, my reaction on discovering that a friend has been meditating will be quite different from what it would be were I to regard meditation as a spiritual discipline that puts me in touch with my bodyself, with others, and with God. [77]

      Because our feeling function and our emotional responses are influenced by our perceptions, it is important that we keep these perceptions under review.

Avoidance

      Because our feelings can be based on erroneous perceptions, or be activated by unconscious triggers, it is often suggested that we should ignore our feelings and rely on our thinking.

      To adopt this course of action, however, is to cut ourselves off from a source of discernment, intimacy, and inspiration. To follow this advice would emasculate the soul.

      Where people have repressed anger on the assumption that it is wrong to be angry, they have robbed themselves of vibrant life-energy.

      Furthermore, we cannot escape our feelings or our emotions by denying them. What we repress does not go away. The feelings and emotions that are denied are trapped in the bodyself. We lose control of them. They trigger unhealthy responses. As Andrew Harvey commented, it is disconcerting when we discover the degree to which our emotional lives are governed by forces so deeply buried in pain that we do not have access to them.⁷

      The impact of repressed emotions extends beyond the bodyself in which they are trapped. They influence our relationships with others. Prejudice, racism, homophobia and misogyny are just a few of their children.

The bodyself

      Discernment is a process involving the bodyself, the cranial brain and the body-mind. For this reason, it is important that we employ both our thinking and feeling in the gaining of wisdom. This is a lifelong task.

      It is also important to realise that thinking and feeling are influenced by brain chemistry, particularly by the function or malfunction of neurotransmitters. An imbalance here can influence our perceptions and moods. [78]

Honouring our feelings

      There are a number of ways of honouring our feelings.

      We honour them by acknowledging them. This isn't easy, especially if we have spent years denying they exist, or dismissing them as second-rate. Having acknowledged our feelings, we need to become familiar with them, to befriend them, to spend time with them, to learn about them, and to learn from them. We should conscript our feelings into helping us discover how we can best integrate the feeling function, as an evaluating tool, into the composite pattern of discernment that is the bodyself. Finally, we should invite our feelings to contribute to the reworking of our map of reality. [80]

[LS 73-80]