≡ Topic: Emotions and colors - a thought experiment

Emotions and colors - a thought experiment
17.08.2014 by tarview

Since this is my first post on the site, I guess I should start with "hello," so....hello. :)

I'm 43 years old and just recently discovered that I have Alexithymia. I also have Asperger's. So far, not a good combination lol.

So, anyway, I was recently going back to my familiar "analyze emotions and try to figure out what, exactly, I'm feeling and why I'm always sticking my foot in my mouth to my wife and her kids" and I came up with an analogy that I think is a starting point for making sense of all this human stuff.

See, we have a recliner in the living room that my wife calls "the blue chair." But when I look at it, I see green. No, neither of us is color-blind (we've both checked). It's just one of those bluish-green or greenish-blue colors that people see differently.

Well, as I was thinking about that, I realized it's similar to my emotional dilemma. I have emotions. I just don't know what they are (i.e. what they are called). To me, angry, sad, sick and in physical pain are all the same thing.

In the same way, red, pink and orange can all look the same. While some people are more specific about naming colors, others just say, "It's kind of a reddish color" or something similar.

So, when I'm feeling (physically sensing) a particular way, I don't know what that emotion's name is (if it even is an emotion), so I might mistake anger for sadness or vice versa. The only thing I know for sure - and the only thing I say - is "I don't feel good." (This would be similar to saying, "It's not blue.")

But the analogy falls apart when we ask how we learn(ed) to identify color. The answer is, we ask(ed) someone. "What color is that?" "Oh, that's fuschia." The problem is, emotions are, by definition, subjective and internal. Even people without Alexithymia might not be sad if they hear that someone died if they didn't know the person at all. So, we can't ask someone, "What emotion am I feeling?" because they don't know. It would be akin to calling a complete stranger who has never been inside your house and asking, "What color is this recliner that I'm looking at?"

Now, to find out what emotion we're feeling, we might try explaining how we feel physically, but this would be like telling that stranger on the phone, "It's a color that I don't like looking at." Their answer might be determined by what color they don't like looking at.

Similarly, when asking about our emotions and giving a description of our physical sensations at the time, our friends might tell us what emotions they have had that gave them a similar sensation, but we have no way to know if that's the right name for the emotion.

While this is obviously not a perfect theory, I do feel like there's something to this. (NOTE: I'm not saying that people with Alexithymia also have trouble distinguishing color. I'm just saying that emotions have a spectrum just like colors do and if we can learn the names of colors, then we should be able to learn the names of emotions.)

What are your thoughts?

Dozo yoroshiku
18.08.2014 by Bushido

Hello tarview.
You've posed an intruiging bit of mind-nibble.
Unfortunately I have no views to offer or share on the matter at the moment. However I would like to see how this theory of yours evolves.

Arigatou gozaimasu

Emotions as vibrations?
01.09.2014 by Toxophile

Where is Hellen Keller's teacher when we need her?

Interesting
10.03.2015 by Franmail

However, how do people without Alexi manage to converse about emotions and seem to get it if the "colour of the chair only you can see" analogy is right? Emotionally feeling people seem to pick up easily on each other's emotions and seem to be able to talk about them quite easily just as if they could sense them like we can see colours or hear sounds. They have an emotional sensitivity which means they are all talking about the same thing.

It's Blue and Black! No! It's White and Gold!
17.03.2015 by wunderkind

I'm just sayin'. That dress was blue and black

taste the rainbow
01.04.2015 by Borg

The problem is, emotions are, by definition, subjective and internal.
Yes, they are subjective, but there are a certain set of parameters in which scripts arise or a redundancy of emotional reactions. One can predict based on information gathering or exposure to repeated environment the typical emotional reaction.

So in regards to learning emotions, yes it can be done. I've done it to a certain extent, a particular subset of emotions that come up repeatedly are easier to discern than a less common emotion or complex one. Asking others what they do helps although many "normies" seem to be unaware of how they feel, just that they do. So research, looking up the physical manifestations of emotions, say anxiety vs. sadness, checking internally, and asking myself questions...heart racing? sweaty palms? or are my eyes tearing up? Stomach hurts? And such form a good bases for learning how to discern one's emotions as they arise.

I feel emotions as primarily physical sensations, internal visual ques, or colors, so my internal checks would be based on such gathered info. I do find it more and more difficult though, as the emotional intensity decreases(as the sensations, and colors decrease in like kind).

I suffer mindblindess
12.05.2016 by Dave

I can't read facial expressions, but finding out I have Alexithymia explains why I can't. I also have Aspergers, so when I found out about Alexithymia I searched the Internet for a relationship between the two conditions. 50% of people with Aspergers have severe Alexithymia. You can't "cure" Aspergers, so I doubt my Alexithymia is anything I could train myself out of. On the other hand, I've had great success with eye contact ; another symptom of Aspergers.