The Cultural Politics of Emotion - Sara Ahmed

For further reading Sara Ahmed recommends following texts:

Campbell 1994 -> dismissing women

Lewis & Haviland 1993 -> interdisciplinary collection on emotions

Lupton 1998 -> interdisciplinary approach to emotions

Strongman 2003 ->psychological approach to emotions

Kemper 1990-> sociological collections

Bendelow & Williams 1998 -> sociological collections

Lutz 1988 -> anthropological approach

Solomon 2003 -> philosophical collection

Reddy 2001 -> historical approach

There is a significant split in theories of emotions:

BODILY SENSATION (William James, Descartes, David Hume) VS COGNITION (Aristotele, Solomon)

BODILY SENSATION: Emotion is the feeling of bodily change. We feel fear because heart is racing and we're sweating. No thought and evaluation involved.

COGNITION: Emotions involve judgements, attitudes etc

Many theorists suggest, that emotions involve judgement or bodily feelings as well as forms of cognition. Descartes "The passions of the Soul" talks about the relation between bodily sensation, emotion and judgement (vielleicht eher Sekundärliteratur lesen). Descartes (1985, 349) suggests that objects do not excite diverse passions because they are diverse, but because of the diverse way in which they may harm or help us.

Sara Ahmed states that the distinction between sensation and emotion can only be analytic. She uses the term impression to avoid having to make the distinction between bodily sensation, emotion and thought.

"Rethinking the place of the object of feeling will allow us to reconsider the relation between sensation and emotion. ... Emotions are intentional in the sense that they are "about" something. They involve a direction or orientation towards an object. Meaning the involve a stance of the world. Emotions are both: About an object which they shape and are also shaped by contact with the object (the object can also be a memory). "

"Primal scene" in psychology of emotions: Child & Bear

"Emotions are relational: They involve (re)actions or relations of towardness or awayness in relation to an object. The are "free"."

If the object of feeling both shapes and is shaped by emotion, then the object of feeling is never simply before the subject.