*BINGO!*
Having a choice about what emotions to feel is reportedly a big part
of certain cultures. It is quite uncommon in many parts of the world.
My personal explorations with alternativs to disthymia (sp?) have
convinced me that the Hedonistic Imperative is in line with optimal
use of the current squishwae I'm limited to. Check out
http://www.pavilion.co.uk/david-pearce/hedethic/hedabhed.htm
and related links.
Now, I think that "negative emotions" are sometimes kind of like
hunches--us trying to tell us something we perhaps have been ignoring
or don't want to hear. Ergo, la-di-da soma-dosing is not anything I'd
advocate. But emotional stuckness is still stuckness, and subclinical
depression is not objectivity, it's subclinical depression. :)
BTW, note to whoever was asking, I think the de Bono book you wanted
was titled (The(?)) Mechanism of Mind. I haven't read it as such, but
I'm sure a lot of it has seeped into his later books. It's
interesting to stack that model up side by side with Minsky and Jung
and even Freud (gasp!) and Reich (double gasp!!) -- and them look at
it all through evolutionary-psychology-colored glasses. :) :)
MMB, happy to be happy more often
at but not for, etc.