Making and mistaking reality: What is emotional education?

Abstract

A central thesis of this paper is that the mind and its thought evolve out of the experience of the whole person in their unique surroundings. It attempts to articulate the meaning and value of Emotional Education, especially in its relation to thought processes. It shows the value of learning from the particular, and from awareness of feeling states. It shows how making emotional enquiry can change the nature of the thinking, reducing the need of the thinker, and involves experiencing while not-knowing as well as more usual rational approaches. Recent affirmations from neuroscience of the psychoanalytic picture of conscious awareness arising from unconscious emotional processes are noted. Systemic and emotional thought processes are described and illustrated. While the nature of unconscious choice is recognised as part of all thought process, the "use of self" is explored as a conscious means of influencing the nature of thinking, and the attributes of both person and context necessary to flourishing thought are contrasted with the human needs which produce mistaken thought. Some questions which have been asked by students in Emotional Education classes, about free will, abuse, and ethics are raised. I hope the gratitude to people who have shared their feelings in order to think and be thought about in "emotional thinking" is evident; it is very real to me. © Springer 2005.