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Path: utzoo!watmath!watnot!watmum!cdshaw
From: cdshaw@watmum.UUCP (Chris Shaw)
Newsgroups: net.singles
Subject: Choosing feelings
Message-ID: <231@watmum.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 31-Jul-85 05:29:46 EDT
Article-I.D.: watmum.231
Posted: Wed Jul 31 05:29:46 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 1-Aug-85 21:52:38 EDT
Reply-To: cdshaw@watmum.UUCP (Chris Shaw)
Distribution: net
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 37

In article <126@ih4ep.UUCP> era@ih4ep.UUCP (Eric Anderson ) writes:
>...
>To choose an emotion implies (to me) a conscious decision.  The
>definition used above states emotions do not come about through
>"conscious mental effort."  ....
>
>Eric Anderson (ih4ep!era)

Actually, this brings to mind a problem I sometimes have, usually involved
with "affairs of the heart".

I am sometimes faced with situations which I've thought about, and have 
preconceived notions about how I would act and how I would feel. When the
thought-about event happens, I sometimes experience emotions which are
"worse" in kind than what I would have predicted.

For example, I never thought I'd be the "jealous type".(as opposed to male-type)
But an incident happened where my SO at the time made (in fun) some approving
comments in public about a man she'd told me (in private) that she liked
physically. I often (in private & in fun) made similar comments about women
that we both knew. What really upset me was that she made these remarks in
public, but try as I might, I couldn't get "un-upset" about this seemingly
trivial episode. I thought at the time that what I was feeling was somewhat
"ugly", but I couldn't help myself.

Do other people get confronted by things like this, thinking/feeling things
which one intellectually abhors, but that you can't seem to avoid ?
This type of conflict sometimes comes up in politics, too.

Just thought this would add an interesting twist to the "deciding to feel x"
debate.

Chris Shaw    watmath!watmum!cdshaw  or  cdshaw@watmath
University of Waterloo

Work is the curse of the drinking classes.
		- Oscar Wilde