Instinct and Culture

In the West, we divide emotions into “good” and “bad.” Generally speaking, those emotions which are pleasant are considered good, such as love and joy, while unpleasant feelings such as depression or anger are considered bad. Although is primarily meant to help people gauge the quality of their own lives, we also use it to judge others. For instance, depressed and angry individuals are more readily spurned for their emotional timber than their cheerful counterparts. There are no doubt many reasons for this, including the way that moods spread. Being in the company of a sad person tends to make people sadder, while being in the company of a cheerful tends to make them more cheerful. There is also a less recognized but more interesting factor. “Good” emotions are a mark of success, and because of this, people are encouraged to emote this positive feelings even when they do not genuinely experience them. Similarly, it is shameful to experience “bad” emotions, and people will sometimes deny the presence of these feelings to both themselves and those around them.

Even amongst those who acknowledge their negative feelings, there tends to be an impetuous to purge those feelings as quickly as possible. To this end, people drown their feelings in alcohol, television, and similar distractions. Others take medication specifically tailored to “cure” these feelings. These approaches attend to the symptoms without addressing the cause. Certain philosophies do address the causes, but it's with the attitude that suffering is “bad” and the goal of life should be to attain a perfect state of happiness. Although a gross oversimplification, this attitude defines the undercurrent of philosophies as diverse as psychoanalysis and Buddhism.

Of course, there's no denying that depression and anger are unpleasant, both for the person suffering from them and for those in their company. At the same time, though, they are an integral part of the human experience. With anger comes the fire to enact change, to set firm social boundaries, and to purge from our lives behaviors and company that cause us dissatisfaction. Similarly, with depression we gain insight—a fact affirmed by psychological research, which shows a multi-point increase in IQ scores during such periods. In my own experience, moments of depression tend to be marked a heightened awareness of beauty. A thunderstorm is never so glorious as when experienced after heartbreak. After one particularly bad day, I spent a whole evening watching pigeons outside the library, and my attentiveness to their coos and struts had never been more genuinely or unshakable.

Perhaps it would be helpful to look at this from a perspective. In Buddhism, there is this notion that people are cursed creatures. We have a divine mind with the potential to reach enlightenment, but we also have all these animal instincts which cause unnecessary suffering. The purpose of Buddhist study is to distance yourself from this animal aspect of yourself and more fully embrace your divine mind. Similiarly, Christianity divides the human experience into base animal drives (aligned with Satan) and a divine conscious (aligned with God). As with Buddhism, this divide is seen as a curse. We are a tainted race and we must suppress our animal aspect to earn an eternity in Paradise.

Given what science now tells us about evolution and psychology, perhaps we should reevaluate this deeply embedded distaste for the darker emotions. Are anger, hate, and depression truly evil? Truly bad? The belief behind evolution is that everything evolves for a reason. We would not experience these feelings unless they had a purpose, unless they were meant to guide us. Sure, they're unpleasant, but so the pain of touching a fire. At the same time, that pain discourages us from touching fire again. It helps us learn and adapt. Depression is no different, except that instead of leaving a burn on the flesh, it leaves a tender spot on the mind. It is nature's way of helping us adapt to a world that couldn't entirely be predicted by genes, but instead but be learned again and again with each generation.

I try not to be prescriptive in these essay, but today is different. Today I have a recommendation. Next time a dark feeling washes over you, relish in it. Let it guide you; let it inform your choices. Don't run away from it or pretend like you're better than it. Acknowledge that it's your nature trying to come up, and rather than snip the bud, today you'll let it bloom.