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In Emotional Intelligence Goleman discusses what happens when ‘passions overwhelm reason.’ Our reactions to the world around us have evolved over time. These ‘automatic reactions’ are extremely important in dangerous situations. Reactions that don’t always make logical sense, such as the two parents that gave up their lives to rescue their daughter in a train crash; but it could be argued biological and emotional sense. They saved her to protect their genes, as Dawkins might say, and the way this decision was reached was through love.

Goleman called emotions ‘impulses to act’, determined by biological and cultural acts: unconsciously when you feel tenderness or love towards a person the body undergoes a relaxation response ‘a general state of calm and contentment’; and how we display this emotion is also determined by our culture. In this way humans have two minds the rational and emotional, the head and the heart, the intertwined brain which forms our mental state.

There is an advantage to the brain working in this way. Emotions, or intuitions, can take over where thinking could cost us our lives. The amygdala is important when it comes to Emotional Intelligence. It measures new experiences against previous ones looking for a match. There is one on both sides of the brain. In a crisis these amygdalas trigger the secretion of hormones for the fight-or-flight response. These can take over from the rational mind. How? Well, the work of LeDoux has demonstrated the existence of branching brain function. When a sensory signal is passed from the eye or the ear to the Thalamus it then splits in two directions.

This allows the amygdala to respond before the slow neocortex (the thinking part). Therefore in an emergency we act before we think. But DON’T PANNIC we also have an ‘emotional manager’ to control these impulses. The prefrontal cortex.

Goleman concludes from this, ‘It is not just IQ but emotionalintelligence’ that has a role to play. As humans we all have weaknesses and strengths. Personality and emotional characteristics other than IQ such as persistence and empathy can help a person live a fulfilling career or life. There is more to life than money, and not everyone is suited to academic pursuits or high financial positions or wants to be. It is time that our schools supported pupils in life skills, not just grades. Some already are. If we teach young people to focus on their strengths with kindness towards others weaknesses, including their own, perhaps it will allow us to break from the cycles of academia and education that are stifling and repressing those unable to speak up for themselves.

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‘We carry with us every story we have ever heard and every story we have ever lived, filed away at some deep place in our memory. We carry most of those stories unread, as it were, until we have grown the capacity or the readiness to read them. When that happens they may come back to us filled with unexpected meaning.’

(Rachel Remen, Kitchen Table Wisdom, xli)

Cultural history of the inner library

The inner library and storytelling

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Red and Ralph

Red’s story

There were certain words that Red’s mother repeated ad nauseam, ‘Don’t eat on the path. Don’t leave the path. Don’t forget your bow and arrows.’ As if any self-respecting young woman on her way to visit a sick relative would prance about picking flowers in the wood, or speak to strangers. Besides the basket was heavy and the path was long.

Red’s mother often reprimanded her, ‘You add insult to injury.’ So when Red saw Ralph trying to act casual just off the path, she thought time to have a little fun. ’Hello,’ said the wolf. ‘Hello,’ Said Red. ‘What are you up to?’ ‘Oh, nothing, just taking in a nice day,’ the wolf replied. ‘What are you up to?’ ‘Taking some provisions to my sick grandmother.’ ‘That’s very kind of you.’ ‘I’m not kind,’ she said. ‘And I’m armed, in case you are thinking of trying anything funny.’ ‘Me?’ said the Wolf all large eyes and big smile. ‘Yep,’ said Red. ‘I think we understand each other. So this is how it’s going to go.’

And she told him the story of a wolf that visited her grandmother’s house, ate the little old woman, and tried to trick the little girl but ended up with an arrow in his skull.

‘Right,’ said the wolf. ‘Is there any way to negotiate this ending?’ ‘tell me a story and we’ll see,’ she challenged him. So, he talked about woodsmen, and a wolf that felt bad about what it had done and left with a small scar on his belly.

Red laughed, ‘Or we’ll fill it with stones and throw you in a river.’

‘You’re very blood thirsty,’ said the wolf.

‘Look at me,’ smiled Red, the rich velvety cloak, the red slippers, the bow and arrow slung across her back.

‘I believe we have reached an impasse.’

‘I need to take this thing to grandmother.’

‘Goodbye then.’

She scrunched her forehead, ‘Aren’t you going to offer to carry it for me.’

‘I’m not supposed to go on the path.’

‘Just once won’t hurt,’ she coaxed. ‘I would be very grateful. Just don’t get any ideas.’

He eyed her dainty ankles her bared throat. ‘I really shouldn’t, but okay then.’

She let him carry the basket. It left her arms free to collect any stray flowers that dipped onto the path, onto which she kept her feet planted at all times.

‘How much further?’ said the wolf.

‘very far.’

‘What’s in this thing? It’s heavy.’

‘I think something is leaking,’ she said. Little ruby droplets scattered the path behind him.

A red smear had appeared at the bottom of the wicker basket, as some creamy red liquid seeped through.’

‘It’s the cream.’

‘Red cream?’

‘The wolf did it.’ Red said. And they cut his stomach open.

Ralph’s story

There were certain words that Ralph’s mother repeated ad nauseam, ‘Chew your food properly before swallowing, sit up straight and little girls tend to arm themselves with weapons.’ If one wandered off the path however she was fair game. Even folks in the village on the edge of the wood said that people who wondered from the path got what they deserved in the end. Besides, even wolves had to eat.

Ralph’s mother often reprimanded him, ‘Your eyes are too big for your belly.’ So when Ralph saw Red skipping along the path his belly rumbled. ‘Hello,’ Ralph said, ‘What are you up to?’ ‘What are you up to?’ Red said suggestively, the tip of one red shoe playing with the dust at the edge of the path. He swallowed, ‘Nothing.’ She smiled, ‘My mum is forcing me to take this basket full of goodies to grandmother’s house.’ ‘That’s kind of you.’ ‘I’m not kind,’ Red said, ‘I’m not good, and I’m definitely not stupid. So whatever excuse you have for me to step off the path this time, be aware I am armed.’ She let the basket drop onto the path and drew an arrow. Ralph’s tongue felt too large for his mouth as he swallowed.

She told him a story. That’s not the way I heard it, he said. Red sighed, go on, I like a good laugh.

And he told her the story of a little girl who got to grandmother’s house and though the cat and the goose tried to warn her she ate the blood of her blood in the rust-tinted milk, and the warm stew. But then escaped the danger herself.

‘I prefer your story,’ she said. ‘Though I wouldn’t eat my grandmother.

‘There’s something everyone in the village knows about the Red family. Don’t mess with the women.’

Red laughed. ‘You’re funny. Don’t take that as encouragement.’

‘I wouldn’t presume,’ said he.

‘Help me carry the basket,’ she said, taking one of the thick handles. He took a cautious step onto the path. The basket was heavy.

‘What’s in this thing?’

‘Food for grandmother: bread and milk, cheese and ham, tomatoes and spinach, green beans and potatoes.’

‘It must be the potatoes that make it so heavy.’

‘And the cake.’ She said

Ralph’s stomach rumbled just before he died.

Like Beauty and the Beast?

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Socio-narratology: what is it?

‘People’s access to narrative resources depends on their social location: what stories are told where they live and work, which stories do they take seriously or not, and especially what stories they exchange’ (Frank, 3).

Huh?!

Emotions and stories

Learn more about Emma’s writing

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Questions and crossroads

My question is how can traditional storytelling be used to support emotional health? It’s a tough one. The term narrative therapy was coined as a result of the work of two men, Michael White and David Epston (see https://narrativeapproaches.com/books/narrative-means-to-therapeutic-ends/). Though they didn’t want to be associated with any formal definitions. What exactly they did, I don’t know yet, because I am waiting for their book to come into the library. However in my search, of what felt like every periodic journal in an electronic maze, I found Pennebaker.

In the United States, Pennebaker took the idea of narrative and health further by attempting to test it empirically. He and his colleagues did experiments on writing therapy and discovered that writing had a positive effect on not just mental but also physical health! Which brings me to another question, how do we test this? Pennebaker used qualitative data analysis, the measure of positive versus negative words and how these changed over the test period. I am about to trail this myself in a test run of what I hope will be a larger project in 2013, so I’ll let you know how it goes.

Mental health

There aren’t any definitions that really cover ‘positive’ mental health. In medical dictionaries the definition states that problems in mental health are more measurable. It is like trying to define what makes a ‘whole’ person, sometimes we need different things in our lives to feel secure and comfortable. However individuals know for themselves when they feel well adjusted to the environment around them. T hose moments where things flow perhaps, where we don’t only get on with things but feel truly alive and engaged with our environment. We can feel an emotional and physical balance. When it comes to measuring this I’m still trying to figure it out, I’m sure many other researchers are also.

So where am I starting from? I got the core idea of my PhD after reading The Women Who Run With The Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés. She discusses stories from a female and Jungian perspective. I got to wondering what, if anything, had been tested on the emotional effects of story? At first there was very little. I found mention of an experiment after 9/11 demonstrating that stories helped people cope with anxiety. But these were real life stories. What of fiction? Because of Estés’ book I was drawn to folk lore. My mum encouraged me to read fairy stories as a child, and that later developed into an interest in science fiction, fantasy and horror.

Weaving the threads together

Could I find a way to bring storytelling and mental health together? White & Epston’s idea was also to bring different disciplines together so that people could learn from one another. If only someone had told me this in school when I was conflicted between studying English or Science! To me the two things went together, apparently a lot of other people think this way outside of the curriculum. And so despite being funnelled initially into a biology degree, I gave up science to pursue writing, and here I am attempting once more to bring the two things together. A storytelling based research project, resulting in a mix of qualitative methods, a book of short stories, and the development of another new skill, blogging. Then went back to an old skill and passion: writing!

Get your copy here!

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