Following Erin's entry
here on the wonders of emotion, I decided to write a piece on what I mean by "too much emotion". I then, of course, spent a week not feeling much like writing anything, and largely posting links and polls.
I'd like to start off by saying that I believe emotion is
vital. The simplest way of stating my beliefs about the necessity of both emotion and reason is "Emotion tells you what you want. Reason tells you how to get it." Without emotion nothing would be preferable over anything else, and you'd be stuck staring into the middle distance. Without reason you'd not be able to work out the best way of getting to your goal.
When I met Alan Moore he talked about his initial involvement with magic. He had been worried that getting involved in magic would lead him headlong into a nervous breakdown (common amongst writers, pretty much universal amongst magicians). The problem being, how to tell if he was mad or not. Now, the problem here is that it's very hard to tell the difference between a drug-using author who worships a second century snake god and a madman.
The answer, he decided, was the level he was functioning at. If he was still being productive, still happy, still able to get on with the people around him, then he was fine. If he was a dribbling mess, painting the walls with his own faeces and unhappy then it was time to pull him back out.
The same thing, it occurs to me, is true of emotion. If you can't make decisions, nothing really attracts you and everything seems grey, then you don't have enough emotions (usually due to either drugs and/or depression). If, on the other hand, things can't go wrong without you collapsing in tears, the smallest slight has you screaming in anger and your happiness is so strong that you can't form coherent sentences, something is
wrong.
Being uncomfortable meeting new people is a perfectly natural reaction. If the fear is so strong that you can't leave your house, that's too much emotion. Frustration at your plans going awry is ok, the rage causing you to lose control and punch holes in your walls (or worse, loved ones) is too much emotion. If a small slight from a friend has you sobbing that nobody has ever loved you or ever will, you have emotional problems.
It's not the feelings themselves - it's the proportionality of them to the cause. If your partner of 2 years leaves you, it's perfectly natural to spend a few weeks (or months) being overcome by emotion. Rage is a natural tool for dealing with people being complete bastards to you. But if it causes you to lose your grip on reality, or it causes you to become non-functional for long periods of time, then there's a problem.
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