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In response to the questions Holly posed here, I searched through a couple of the discussions across the Serendip site which mused over the topic of emotion and its source. It appears, however, not at all surprisingly, that all of this discussion lends itself to little, if anything, in the way of conclusive evidence about emotional control. No one appears ready to give us the Choice (yes, with a capital C) to feel... perhaps in fear of what the consequences might be?

Long before I entered a class which delved into (and gave name to) my brain's I-function, I'd always understood emotion to be defined by it's spontaneity. Perhaps it was because, in a family coping with several diagnoses, I'd been told from a young age that "my feelings were not my fault." Emotion, to me, never required any justification. Reflecting now, I see that despite this belief, other influences along the way must have taught me otherwise. If I truly believed I had no control over my emotional state... would I pay to sit on someone's couch one a week to hear what she had to say about the way I'd been feeling over the past seven days? Or would I just swallow the handful of pills she instructed me to take every night before I collapsed into bed and not ask any questions?

Ask any MD, psychiatrist, or psychologist, and they'll say that the best treatment for anyone suffering from any mood or personality disorder is a combination of psychotherapy and medication. However, where this line lies remains fuzzy.

No matter, it seems to me that a dichotomy must exist here. But how would this dichotomy be defined? Could it even really be defined? Is talk therapy really just that... talk? Or is the placebo effect plaguing our medicated society? It seems that almost any study can deem any treatment "ineffective".

And returning to the broader question of autonomy... Is there any mechanism by which to determine when and if our I-function were to be consulted over certain emotions in certain situations? Could control over emotion be fluid? Could we have control of an emotion... lose it to our unconscious for a time... and regain it again? Is there really any Choice in the matter of emotion at all? And is the more frightening proposition to lack the control... or to have it?

Yes, more questions... Apologies.