# Good and Bad Emotions & Reorganization

**URL:** <http://discourse.iapct.org/t/good-and-bad-emotions-reorganization/4838>\
**Category:** CSG1996\
**Created:** [October 17, 1996, 3:16pm UTC](http://discourse.iapct.org/t/good-and-bad-emotions-reorganization/4838 "1996-10-17T15:16:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Bill\_Benzon](http://discourse.iapct.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/54ee81/32.png) [@Bill\_Benzon](http://discourse.iapct.org/u/Bill_Benzon)\
**Post date:** [October 17, 1996, 3:16pm UTC](http://discourse.iapct.org/t/good-and-bad-emotions-reorganization/4838/1 "1996-10-17T15:16:52Z")

</div>

So, what would a "good" emotion be about?

Let's think about thirst and drinking. Consider 2 questions:

1.) How long does it take you to drink enough to fill your stomach to the  
bloating point?

2.) How long does it take your digestive system to distribute the newly  
ingested water so that water balance is restored throughout the body?

For most of us the answer to question 1 is something like: not very long.  
And the answer to 2 is something like: a lot longer than drinking-to-bloat.  
Thus, if drinking is triggered by intrinsic error, and goes on until that  
error is eliminated, you are likely to drown in the water you are drinking  
or drown amid a desperate attempt at reorganization. This is not a very  
effective arrangement. The same kind of reasoning applies to chowing down  
at the golden arches.

What we need is something which stops the drinking and eating when "enough"  
has been taken on, which will be long before the intrinsic variable has  
returned to the proper level. (We also need a system which estimates how  
much is enough.) When we've eaten or drunk enough, this unit gives the  
signal, which feels like satisfaction. And indeed, such satisfaction units  
have been found in the hypothalamus. Some of you may recall that folks  
have even wired both rats and humans so that the creature could give direct  
electrical stimulation to one of these satiation centers by pressing a  
button or a bar. This looks like the beginnings of one kind of good  
emotion.

My sense is that the nutrition story is even more subtle (at least for  
endotherms, who tend to eat on schedule while ectotherms do not (I think,  
it's been a long time since I've read this stuff)). You really don't want  
to wait for intrinsic error to set in. You want to keep your body's  
systems away from intrinsic error. So you learn to initiate eating without  
sensing intrinsic error. What sets you to eating, or seeking food?  
Hunger, but hunger is a learned sensation; it is not directly coupled with  
intrinsic signals for nutrition deprivation. You aren't going to get those  
signals until things are really really bad.

\* \* \* \* \*

As for emotion systems, Paul McLean (who certainly did not know PCT) likes  
to talk about the reptilian brain, the old mammalian brain, and the new  
mammalian brain. In doing so he's talking both anatomically and  
phylogenetically. The basic vertebrate brain has a certain set of  
structures which allow it to discriminate some variety of sensory inputs  
and produce some variety of motor outputs. With this it can control a  
reptile in a certain environment. To get a mammal you add structures on to  
the reptilian brain, structures which allow greater discrimination on both  
the input and output sides and which may often inhibit the old reptilian  
stuff, which still remains. Note that reptiles are ectotherms while  
mammals are endotherms. Mammals require much more energy, but they are  
also more stable. Evolution did the same trick to get from a primitive  
mammal (e.g. a rat) to a higher mammal (e.g. a dog).

My guess is that Bruce's emotion system is the old reptile within. That  
is, it is a fully functioning control system, with inputs and outputs and  
reference levels. But it is not very sophisticated. It can't discriminate  
many sensory inputs nor generate many different motor outputs; the stack is  
very shallow; and it can't do much learning, if any. Instead, it is  
surrounded by this deep stack that has enormous capacity to learn. That  
old reptile within isn't an emotion generator, but much of what it does is  
sensed as emotion in this phylogenetically newer and more powerful stack.

> **···**
>
> \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*  
> William L. Benzon 518.272.4733  
> 161 2nd Street [bbenzon@global2000.net](mailto:bbenzon@global2000.net)  
> Troy, NY 12180 [http://www.newsavanna.com/wlb/](http://www.newsavanna.com/wlb/)  
> USA  
> \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*  
> What color would you be if you didn't know what you was?  
> That's what color I am.  
> \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*