Anger in the Age of Entitlement

Cleaning up emotional pollution.

Steven Stosny, Ph.D., treats people for anger and relationship problems. Recent books: How to Improve your Marriage without Talking about It, and Love Without Hurt. See full bio

April 16, 2008, Relationships

Comments on "The Foothold of Emotional Pollution: Alienation"

The Foothold of Emotional Pollution: Alienation

By Steven Stosny on April 16, 2008 in Anger in the Age of Entitlement

Unless we understand how emotions happen in a social context and how they give meaning to events and behavior, there is no hope of knowing the self, let alone understanding another person or other cultures. Read More

we can't see

Submitted by Amanda Franklin on April 16, 2008 - 5:52pm.

So how are we suppose to see? To fix our world? I am eighteen years old and my generation is very strong minded we just need a push to get us started. So how do we see everyone even the witch doctors in Africa and the people in Hawaii and everywhere else we don't hear anything from?

Binocular vision

Submitted by Steven Stosny on April 17, 2008 - 10:50am.

Monocular vision is seeing the world only from your own perspective. Binocular vision is seeing two perspectives at the same time. We have to regulate our initial reactions to others and make a conscious effort to see the world from their perspectives, alongside our own. That takes discipline and self-training. On automatic pilot, we will simply react and spread emotional pollution.

Compelling evidence

Submitted by Paul Wilson on April 25, 2008 - 10:01am.

Compelling evidence that automatic emotional reactivity occurs in milliseconds just because we are humans is helpful I thought It was just me. I can also see that not all people react the same way. Therefore can this automatic emotional reactivity be trained or conditioned to be positive even though what's around me is negative?

Yes, definitely, which is

Submitted by Steven Stosny on April 26, 2008 - 10:06am.

Yes, definitely, which is what therapy should be about. Some people are more sensitive to reactivity than others, but it affects everyone to some degree, unless you are putting out your own valuing emotions.