Human emotional state: diagnosis, types, regulation and self-regulation. Emotional states of children and adolescents

An emotion is one of several psychological states of a person. A person’s emotional and mental state depends on the environment and looks like a mental experience.

Emotions

Feelings are the consequences of experiences from a person’s emotions. For example, if a person likes another person, these are emotions; when he loves him, these are already feelings.

Emotions are divided into several states:

• mood;
• affects;
• stress;
• frustration;
• passion.

Mood is the most powerful emotional state that a person experiences for a certain period of time. A mood emotion arises suddenly, unexpectedly, sharply or slowly, gradually. Mood can be good or bad, long-term or short-term.

A good mood creates a positive energy balance for a person. He readily starts work, household chores or other responsibilities. In the end, everything works out, and the process is actively carried out with a high percentage of quality. A bad mood has the opposite effect. The energy tone is low, the desire to act is absent, the quality of the work performed is poor.

Mood has an individual indicator. Some people experience a good mood all the time, while for others it changes from good to bad very often.

Changes in mood depend on temperament, which is divided into several types:

• sanguine;
• choleric;
• phlegmatic person;
• melancholic.

It turns out that sanguine people are more positive individuals and their mood is always in a positive tone.

Choleric people are subject to frequent changes and emotional swings in their mood. During the day, his mood may change several times.

Phlegmatic people can be classified as cold-blooded and calm people. Their self-confidence allows them to control the change of emotions, keep themselves in control all the time and almost never lose their temper.

And the melancholic person experiences the most negative emotions. Changing life situations and surroundings has a bad effect on their mood. This throws them off balance and disrupts their peace.

What does your mood depend on? There can be a lot of factors influencing this. The main ones can be success at work, achieving goals, surprises, gifts, news, and health.

When a person experiences positive or negative emotions, he can transfer them to another person.

Affect

The next emotional state is affect (a sharply arising emotion). It has a strong reaction on the human psyche. This condition has a negative character, in which a person’s behavior changes for the worse, making him nervous and uncontrollable. This leads to the destruction of the psyche and disrupts the state of mind of the individual.

A person in such a state is unable to perform reasonable actions and may later regret his actions. It is impossible to stop the affect, but you can try to control your actions and actions so that this state does not occur. To do this, you need to switch your attention from the situation that caused the affect to neutral actions. Psychologists recommend distracting yourself by counting numbers. This process helps to direct mental activity in a different direction and forget the problems that have arisen.

Most often, choleric people and people with a low level of intelligence who are unable to cope with emotions are susceptible to affect.

Next comes stress. This is a condition that occurs due to dangerous factors, during which there is a possibility of losing life or getting injured and disfigured. Stress is an emotion similar to affect. It has a high mental impact on the human nervous system. But stress has many differences from affect. If affect occurs unexpectedly, stress appears during an extreme situation. Affect turns off the body’s brain activity, while stress, on the contrary, can help make the right decision at a crucial moment.

Stress has positive and negative effects on the human body. The bad effect is due to the load on the nervous system, which leads to a decrease in immunity and the threat of disease. The good effect is due to increased activity of the whole organism.

A person's behavior under stress can be different. A person may be lost and unable to deal with the problem that has arisen, while others, on the contrary, become more active and ready to act.

Frustration

Another emotion is frustration. This is a very emotional experience that occurs against the backdrop of bad success. Expressed in the form of anger, despair, apathy. Active actions that will bring success will help you get out of this state.

Passion

What is passion? It turns out that this is a state that completely absorbs and begins to control all the desires and needs of a person. Passion requires constant satisfaction of your needs. They can be material and spiritual, positive and negative.

If a person is overwhelmed by the passion to create and express his desires, then this is considered a normal manifestation of emotions. But if an individual does not want to take anyone into account and does things that are beneficial only for him. In addition, all human desires are associated with the desire to satisfy one’s needs, and, in this case, they speak of the negative effect of passion.

When experiencing, people experience feelings. There are feelings:

• moral;
• moral;
• intellectual;
• educational;
• aesthetic.

A person experiences moral feelings when he worries about the opinion that people have about him.

Emotions are an important component of human life. People are subject to both positive and negative emotions. Which of them predominates to a greater extent depends on a person’s lifestyle, his environment and attitude towards life.

Many of us have heard that negative emotions can undermine health, while positive ones can “cure” illnesses. If we talk about a person’s mental state, then emotions leave a certain imprint. But not many people know how they affect health.

People say: “All diseases come from nerves.” And doctors often use this phrase when trying to explain the cause of another illness. Numerous studies show that individual emotions have different effects on human health. But before you find out how this happens, you need to figure out which emotions are positive and which are negative.

Positive and negative emotions

By definition, emotions cannot be positive or negative. Just depending on what we feel at a given moment in time, our well-being and health can improve or worsen. However, a stereotypical classification of feelings is firmly entrenched in society: positive and negative.

Positive emotions it is generally accepted:
• laughter and joy;
• sympathy and interest;
• curiosity and inspiration;
• delight and admiration.

TO negative emotions have completely opposite feelings:
• sadness and sadness;
• uncertainty and shame;
• irritation and envy;
• anxiety and hatred;
• guilt and indifference;
• anger and excitement.

This is a basic list of human emotions, which can be supplemented and diversified if desired. But one thing is clear: when we experience positive emotions, our mood rises, our well-being improves, we gain an interest in life and a desire to act. When negative emotions take possession of us, we become despondent, apathetic, angry at the world around us, and we cease to be interested in life itself and the people around us.

How do negative emotions affect human health?

Ancient healers argued that every disease is interconnected with a specific experience. Aggression can disrupt the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract, provoke headaches, hypertension and dental problems. Jealousy causes digestive disorders, insomnia and headaches. Fear is associated with heart disease, respiratory problems, hearing impairment, visual acuity and kidney disease. Worries include circulatory problems and diseases of the central nervous system. Hatred contributes to the development of cancer, liver disease and stomach ulcers.

How do positive emotions affect human health?

Any positive emotion increases the efficiency of the nervous system, improves sleep, stabilizes the emotional state, promotes the production of joy hormones (endorphins) and has a positive effect on the body’s hormonal levels. The more positive emotions a person feels, the less susceptible he is to stress and various diseases.

How to manage emotions?

The best way to get rid of negative emotions is to “throw them out.” Such emotions cannot be kept to oneself, but people around them should not suffer from them. Physical activity helps to cope with neuroses. A favorite hobby or hobby helps to take your mind off grievances and worries. Art therapy (copying problems onto paper) allows you to cover negative emotions with positive ones. Medicinal therapy - sedative herbal medicines, which contain calming herbs.

Emotions not only make life brighter, help or, conversely, hinder in business and relationships, but also directly affect our health and beauty. How your anger or joy reflects on your skin and hair - read the article.

Our skin is directly connected to the nervous system. Moreover, if everything is more or less clear with the external side of the emotions reflected on the skin (redness with anger or embarrassment, pallor with fear, “goose bumps” with fear), then what then happens inside the body?

During periods of severe emotional stress, blood flow is directed mainly to those organs that the body considers most important for survival, and blood flows away from all others. The last group includes the skin, which immediately feels an acute lack of oxygen, which is why it acquires an unhealthy yellowish tint. Therefore, prolonged stress can greatly disrupt the functioning of the entire body, and this will be especially noticeable on the skin of the face. Dermatologists believe that stress provokes eczema, psoriasis, and leads to the appearance of warts and papillomas. However, the most common skin reactions to negative emotions are rashes, irritations and acne. Due to strong feelings and worries, a person’s sebaceous glands begin to work much harder than usual, and the products of this activity accumulate and clog the pores, which leads to all of the above.

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Doctors who study the causes of aging of skin cells generally believe that pimples are anger and anger that come out. This, of course, does not mean that your pimply classmate is the devil in the flesh, maybe he is just a very insecure person, since this also affects the appearance of skin problems.

It turns out that by taking care of the nervous system, we help the skin get rid of various problems, and vice versa - by tidying up the face and body, we have a positive effect on the nervous system. That is, you can get rid of stress with the help of various cosmetic procedures for the skin, for example, with wraps (chocolate, with essential oils, with algae) or massage, soothing and nourishing face masks, and in general any procedures that lift your spirits and positively affect the condition of the skin.

Psychologists have identified several ways to express emotions that will help you get rid of skin problems.

First, learn to express your emotions out loud. Of course, your boss doesn’t need to know what you really think about him, so it’s better to just say what you’ve accumulated out loud, but so that no one hears.

Secondly, you can keep a diary where you will write everything down, but in this case, make sure that no one reads it. Alternatively, you can keep an online diary or, by joining a community of interests, discuss what you have accumulated with strangers - a sort of modernized “fellow traveler syndrome.”

Third, use the experience of King Solomon. He always wore a ring with an engraving on the inside. During the most difficult periods, the king turned the ring over and read: “This too shall pass.”

Excess stress - excess weight

It is believed that with prolonged depression or stress, a person loses a lot of weight. This is due to loss of appetite. However, with age, everything happens exactly the opposite: metabolism slows down, joy hormones are not produced during depression, so when you start to “eat stress,” then chocolates and almond croissants say hello from your rounded hips. Of course, this further aggravates the situation and spoils the mood, so nutritionists recommend not wolfing down food even in the worst mood, so as not to develop the habit of “eating stress.” Instead, go to the pool or gym, for example. Physical activity copes well with a depressed state, allows you to throw out negative energy, relaxes and tones, and also, of course, has a positive effect on your figure, which in itself lifts your mood.

OPTIMISM AND AN EASY ATTITUDE TO TROUBLE IS THE KEY TO A HEALTHY AND HAPPY LIFE

Anti-flu optimism

Experts conducted a study and found that balanced and cheerful people are much less susceptible to viral infections and flu. If they do become infected, the disease progresses much easier and without consequences. Therefore, try to see something positive in any situation, even a very unpleasant one. Did the heel of your favorite shoes break? This is a reason to finally pluck up the courage and meet the cute guy from the shoe shop opposite your office or just buy those cute blue sandals that you spotted in your favorite store last week. Then there will be more joy in life, and your immune system will become stronger.

Retribution for sins

Negative emotions have a negative impact on all organs of your body. Austrian scientists studied the effect of envy on health for five years and found that, for example, envious people are two and a half times more likely than others to become victims of myocardial infarction and cardiovascular diseases. Even if you don’t say out loud that you envy Katya’s career or Masha’s apartment on Stoleshnikov, this doesn’t mean that Masha, Katya and everyone around them don’t feel it. After all, you feel when someone envies you. If you cannot cope with envy yourself, psychologists advise acting on the contrary - give yourself the attitude that the objects of envy will never become yours if you wish harm to the one who has them. Tough, but effective.

But jealousy is especially dangerous for men, as it can easily cause impotence, which is worth unobtrusively informing your boyfriend about when he once again expresses dissatisfaction with the fact that you are going to a long-planned bachelorette party.

The feeling of guilt eats a person in the most literal sense, as it provokes the development of cancer, and the habit of feeling sorry for oneself can lead to cirrhosis of the liver, gastritis or ulcers. Beef greedy animals also need to closely monitor their health - they often suffer from constipation and other diseases of the digestive tract.

If you suppress feelings of anger, then you have an increased risk of developing cardiovascular diseases. Helplessness, despair and depression can seriously weaken the immune system.

Way of thinking

The body is influenced not only by emotions, but by the way a person thinks as a whole. Constructive, that is, positive thinking and an easy-going attitude towards life lead to the fact that a person does not become obsessed with his health. According to statistics, such people go to the hospital much less often and suffer less from infections, excess weight, stomach and back pain, and migraines. Nutritionists have noticed that they are in control of their eating and are better able to overcome the habit of overeating, if any.

Therefore, it is important to learn to think differently, ignore the bad and let in more good things, start taking care of yourself not only externally, but also internally.

Anna Golenko
Photo by Michael Omm/ACP

Negative and positive emotions, their impact on human health.

Individuality of the occurrence and expression of emotions

Emotions are physiological states that cover a wide variety of human feelings and experiences. Emotions have a pronounced subjective coloring; This is a person’s individual attitude to everyday events, phenomena, sensations, to various signals from the external world and the internal environment of the body itself, falling on the cerebral cortex. Emotions are a constant companion in human life. Numerous signals from the internal environment of the body, such as pain, palpitations, rumbling in the stomach, muscle tension, bowel retention, tinnitus, are perceived with anxiety as unpleasant sensations.

A tasty dish eaten with appetite, good sleep, complete emptying of the rectum or bladder from its contents, on the contrary, are perceived with satisfaction and are accompanied by a feeling of pleasure and calm.

With the same subjective assessments, signals from the outside world are perceived: sounds, speech, visual images and colors, phenomena of the natural and social environment. Praise, good news, good luck, rewards, gifts on holidays are always a joy.

Emotions have a direct bearing on aesthetics. The same phenomenon, event, the same object, work of art evokes pleasure and positive emotions in some people, is indifferent to others, and has a negative effect on others and irritates others. Some people like classical music, others like modern rhythms. Some, watching football matches or boxing, express their pleasure by shouting and whistling; Others perceive the behavior of fans as painful, causing irritation and indignation.

The nature and degree of feelings, emotional perception of phenomena and events depend both on the type of higher nervous activity, and on education and upbringing, the influence of family, society and traditions. Emotions are not only an everyday companion to ordinary everyday, professional, and cultural perceptions; complex processes, scientific research and creative activity cannot do without them. Emotions have a significant impact on human health, both negative and positive. Positive emotions do not lead to disruption of higher nervous activity, but, on the contrary, contribute to improving health and overcoming diseases.

The relationship between negative emotions and psychopathological states of the body

Strong emotional discharges and affects can directly cause neurotic states. But most often, apparently, the cause-and-effect relationship is more complex. Probably, the connection of a neurotic state directly with a violent emotion, with affect, is the last link in the chain of previous, less strong, less noticeable, suppressed negative emotions that have not passed without a trace. Traces of negative emotions, repeated and prolonged, accumulate and sum up in brain cells, reaching such degrees when quantitative changes turn into qualitative ones, a breakdown, a neurotic state occurs.

It is an indisputable fact that any emotional states, especially long-term, protracted negative emotions, are accompanied by changes in the functional systems of the body, primarily the cardiovascular system, and are inseparable from them. The physiological systems of the body turn on automatically, against the will of the person. This inclusion is carried out as an unconditioned reflex, developed in the prehistoric period of human life. It is similar to the unconditioned reflexes of animals.

Development of unconditional reactions of the body to emotional factors

The origin and evolution of the reactions of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems to negative emotions are most clear. At the beginning of his development and in the first millennia of history, man was powerless against formidable natural phenomena incomprehensible to him, as well as against wild animals superior to him in strength, before a man better armed with a stone or a club, before a hostile group of people, before all that which posed a threat to his health and life. In such a situation, the only way to avoid danger is to flee. Run so as not to be caught up or overtaken, hide in a cave, on a tree, in the water.

Running is hard muscular work, which, as is well known, requires high oxygen consumption and, therefore, increased blood supply. The need to deliver large amounts of oxygen to the muscles is satisfied by the enhanced function of the circulatory and respiratory systems. The increased activity of these two functional systems is accompanied by increased and deepening of breathing, palpitations, and increased heart rate.

As a result of repeated repetition of the combination of the emotions of fear with increased function of the circulatory and respiratory systems, a conditioned reflex was developed, which later turned into an unconditioned one: shortness of breath, increased heart rate, palpitations as a reaction to fear and a number of other negative emotions. The emotion of fear is accompanied by reactions of other functional systems: “bear sickness”, the urge to urinate, sometimes involuntary urination and much more. In the process of evolution, the historical path of man, the surrounding everyday life rarely confronted us with conditions that forced us to flee. Only in exceptional cases, when attacked by a wild animal, was a person forced to flee from danger; more often he defended himself. But the reflex, which has been developed over millennia, has become unconditional: in case of any danger, in case of a real or imaginary threat, in case of fear of the unknown or expected, the functional systems of the body are automatically turned on.

Functional changes in the cardiovascular system under the influence of stress factors

The reaction of the cardiovascular system during emotions is most noticeable, therefore in legends, songs, and proverbs we find it reflected in figurative comparisons and definitions: “melancholy gnaws at the heart,” “comes to the heart,” “the heart is a prophet.” What this means for the cardiovascular system is shown by the following. The heart of an adult at rest beats at (on average) 70 beats per minute. In other words, the heart contracts 70 times per minute and relaxes the same number of times (systole-diastole), therefore, under the influence of blood entering the blood vessels, the arteries expand and contract 70 times per minute in order to push blood through the bloodstream. This amounts to 4,200 contractions of the heart and arteries per hour, 100,800 per day, about 37 million per year, over sixty years of life - more than two billion contractions.

During muscle work, at elevated temperatures, the number of contractions increases. Many emotions, sometimes positive, more often negative, are accompanied by an increase in heart and vascular contractions up to 100-120 or more per minute. The more emotions, the more frequent and lasting they are, the more the cardiovascular system wears out, the more conditions are created for the development of atherosclerosis, especially if the emotions are accompanied by an increase in blood pressure in the arteries.

The cardiovascular system is the most sensitive device, a kind of seismograph, reflecting our feelings and experiences through the subcortex, its neuro-autonomic nodes and the autonomic nervous system. Scientists have recognized for several decades that trauma and emotional stress in the sphere of higher nervous activity are the main causes of hypertension.

Other physiological systems of the body are also not indifferent: they react in one way or another, to a greater or lesser extent, reflect emotions with certain functional disorders, short-term or long-term. And repeated reactions, depending on their strength and duration, can lead first to persistent functional disorders, and then to organic changes in the respiratory system, digestion, urination, and endocrine glands.

There are controlled and uncontrollable vegetative manifestations of emotions. The controllable ones include human behavior, speech, facial expressions, breathing, lacrimation; the uncontrollable ones include the activity of the cardiovascular system, digestive organs, urination, and sweating. Consequently, we can control some manifestations, but we have no control over other manifestations, for example, palpitations, diarrhea or urination during excitement and fear. However, as research in recent years has shown, through self-training and self-hypnosis you can also control the activity of the heart.

Causes of negative emotions

The sources of negative emotions are many and varied. Some of them are inevitable, inevitable, for example, the death of close relatives and friends; others are difficult to prevent, and sometimes even to foresee: national disasters, accidents, illness, family and work troubles. But there are many negative emotions, the source of which is people - their behavior and their actions.

Often industrial and household noises that serve as sources of negative emotions are caused by people. In everyday life, in the communication of people, grievances, troubles, and bitterness are most often caused by words. The mighty power of the word is reflected in folk wisdom in proverbs and sayings. You can offend not only with words, but also with disdainful silence. Mental wounds and insults are often inflicted by their behavior on those who are called upon to create a good mood for people. The inattention and rudeness of salespeople, quarrels between neighbors in a communal apartment, and various administrative delays serve as a constant source of negative emotions.

Quite often, rudeness, tactlessness, elevated tone or swearing are justified by the need for them in the interests of the business or by nervousness (“nerves are on edge”), or by the nature of the work. Unfortunately, there are doctors who justify rudeness, irritability and even swearing during operations by the interests of the case - the need to accurately carry out all orders of the operating medical staff.

Business interests and nervousness do not justify bad manners and low culture. Often truly nervous people suffering from neuroses know how to restrain themselves and try not to irritate or offend others. But it seems that so little is needed to eliminate what can be eliminated: mutual understanding, mutual respect, goodwill, politeness. The problem of relationships between people is very complex, and solving it, that is, preventing emotional disorders, is a matter not only of medical workers, but also of moral and aesthetic education.

Everyone is involved in upbringing: parents, neighbors, society, all the people around us. The point, however, is that the mass of educators are unfamiliar with the basics of pedagogy. Consequently, the prevention of negative emotions, which in many cases are the precursors of neuroses, and then organic diseases of the cardiovascular and other body systems, is a universal task and requires joint efforts.

It is necessary to take into account that the human body, the cells of the cerebral hemispheres, under certain conditions, are able to withstand large overloads without any special consequences. Today it has been convincingly proven that the correct organization of work, the alternation of excitation and inhibition processes, and the correct psychophysiological regime ensure the normal functioning of the central nervous and other body systems. Disorders of work that do not correspond to the physiological pace and rhythms of the human body, incorrect, chaotic alternation of work and rest, overload, overexertion without the necessary rest lead to breakdowns and a painful state. Prevention of neurotic conditions as consequences of negative emotions consists in fostering discipline of work and rest, in establishing a rational lifestyle.

Persons prone to violent reactions, sharp emotional manifestations (crying, swearing, assault, increased tone in conversation) need self-discipline, switching to other types of muscular or mental activity. You can switch to muscle work, music, reading or anything else.

Repeated, prolonged negative emotions are dangerous; they can cause pathological conditions - neuroses, psychopathy, diseases of internal organs, so they need to be dealt with. But to fight not so much by using narcotic and sedatives, but by other ways that were discussed here. And only if this fails, it is necessary to contact a neurologist or psychiatrist for qualified treatment.

The influence of a person’s mood on the occurrence and course of the disease

People of the same age and gender, the same profession, sometimes even siblings, differ in character, tastes, habits, and behavior. It depends on the type of higher nervous activity. In everyday life, the same phenomenon or event is often assessed differently by the same person depending on their mood. I'm not feeling well, I'm not feeling well. Anyone who has experienced it knows how this affects the mood. What about illness? At best, this is a nuisance, but often it is a misfortune, a catastrophe, it is upset plans - work and family, for the near or distant future, it is sometimes the death of hopes, unfulfilled dreams. Usually, illness is not only physical suffering, but also fear of the future, the unknown, perhaps difficult, inevitable. The more acute and unexpected the illness, the more difficult it is to bear. The more mysterious it is, the less a person knows about it, the more difficult and terrible it seems to him.

However, not everyone experiences illness in the same way; not everyone has the same experiences, perceptions, or attitudes toward illness. The subjective world of the patient, his attitude to the disease, the acuity of perception of irritations from the external world and the internal environment of the body depend on the type of higher nervous activity, temperament that has developed as a result of the implementation of hereditarily determined characteristics of higher nervous activity in the external - both physical and social - environment.

I. P. Pavlov, who devoted several decades to the study of the higher nervous activity of man, characterizes the fusion of innate and acquired during life properties of character and temperament: “The behavior of humans and animals is determined not only by the innate properties of the nervous system, but also by those influences that fell and constantly fall on the organism during its individual existence, that is, it depends on constant upbringing or training in the broadest sense of these words. And this is because, next to the above-mentioned properties of the nervous system, its most important property, the highest plasticity, continuously appears. Therefore, if Since we are talking about an innate type of nervous system, it is necessary to take into account all the influences that this organism has been under since birth and is now under.”

So, education and training in the broadest sense of these words also includes the education of attitudes towards health and illness. In the works of Turgenev, Tolstoy, Gorky and many others, especially writers-doctors - Chekhov, Veresaev, one can find numerous examples of reflection in artistic form of the real experiences of the sick and dying, the attitude of the healthy towards illness and death. Subtle observers, psychologists, “engineers of human souls,” as they are called, writers note and describe numerous and multifaceted character traits and behavior, mental characteristics of patients - representatives of different estates, classes, people of different property status and social status.

Unfortunately, in our time, the Russian healthcare system, the lack of normal promotion of hygienic and medical knowledge, and the often inaccessibility of expensive qualified and specialized medical care do not ensure the proper attitude of patients towards their illness, towards medicine and medical workers. The subjective perception of painful sensations, their subjective assessment, anxiety, worries, and restlessness associated with the disease are overshadowed by concerns about finding funds to pay for treatment, to support the family during the illness, and thoughts about the possibility of being unemployed. Therefore, the attitude towards the disease and the behavior of a significant part of patients worsens the course and outcome of the disease, causing concern among doctors. There is an Eastern story about a doctor who, addressing a patient, says: “There are three of us: you, the disease and me. If you stand on my side, then the two of us will defeat the disease; if you take the side of the disease, then the two of you will overcome me.” . The wisdom of this reasoning lies in the fact that the patient’s mood, his hope for the success of treatment, and faith in a cure are excellent allies of the doctor. How difficult it is to treat patients who have a depressed mood, gloomy thoughts, and uncertainty about a favorable outcome of the disease.

Many patients are allies of doctors, assistants to medical staff in overcoming illnesses. Moreover, many do not overload medical institutions in cases where this is not necessary. But quite often there are people whose attitude towards health, illness, medicine and doctors deserves, to put it mildly, condemnation.

First of all, it is worth mentioning those who are not interested in medical issues and are calm about various types of pain, malaise and other changes in the body. They are ready to explain these changes, citing drafts, inappropriate food, overwork, lack of sleep, minor injury, and so on. They do not consider it necessary to see a doctor about such “trifles”; they try to “lie down” at home or endure the illness “on their feet”.

And indeed, the disease goes away either on its own or under the influence of primitive home treatments. But the same sensations and changes in well-being can also be a manifestation of a serious illness. And, if the “trifles” do not go away, they force you to seek medical help. But even in this case, the behavior of such patients is peculiar: they trust medicine, doctors, but try to prove that the disease does not deserve so much attention, they refuse a detailed examination, or hospitalization. If they end up in the hospital, it is difficult to keep them there. All kinds of manipulations accompanied by painful sensations, for example, drawing blood from a finger, intravenous infusions, subcutaneous injections and much more, cause panic fear in them, and when the doctor tries to prove the need for these manipulations, patients insist on being discharged. Considering health only their personal property, they cannot agree with the doctor’s arguments about the need for treatment.

Others argue something like this. Over the past decades, science and technology have made great strides forward; people have learned to create complex automatic machines, apparatus, automatic production lines, build airliners and fly into space. During this period, medicine did not discover ways to cure patients from cancer, hypertension, and sclerosis. These skeptics are not interested in the colossal advances and achievements of medicine. They only know that medicine is not omnipotent, but in other areas of science not everything has been decided and not everything is known. Long-term weather forecasts do not always come true; science and technology do not yet know how to control the weather.

Skeptics have no idea about the existence of the science of bionics, which studies the possibilities of technical use of patterns and methods of managing, obtaining, processing and storing information that living organisms possess. They do not want to understand that the most complex machine or electronic device to some extent copies what nature has created over the course of the multimillion-year evolution of living organisms. They do not think about the fact that any technical part, almost any machine component can, if necessary, be replaced with exactly the same parts created by man. For the animal and human body, spare parts are practically not created and are unlikely to ever be created mechanically. Some individual organs can be replaced with non-living prostheses; in the best case, donor organs can be transplanted, but science is not yet able to create truly new living “parts” of the human body.

Not trusting medicine or doctors, skeptics willingly use the advice of colleagues, acquaintances and random companions for self-medication. Here, not only medicines proposed by scientists are in use, but also various folk remedies and proposals from home-grown “inventors”: various mixtures for cancer, remedies for tuberculosis, for hypertension, and much more. Fans of this treatment willingly give advice to people they know and don’t know, including medical workers, as long as they listen to them.

However, the desire to “help one’s neighbor” is common to many people of all times and peoples. “Homer and Plato said about the Egyptians that they were all doctors, and the same should be said about all peoples: there is no person who does not know some sure remedy and who would not risk trying it on his neighbor if he wanted to believe him,” wrote M. Montaigne.

“Experts” of their body deserve attention. They are usually interested in medicine, but their knowledge is primitive, drawn from an arsenal of gossip and anecdotes or, at best, from broadcasts on medical topics on the radio. Many patients in this category “know their body,” sometimes “better than the doctor.” “The doctor knows my body from my story, but I myself feel what problems I have.” Contact such an expert on your body with a request to fix a broken water tap, not to mention a washing machine or electric iron, - he will not only be surprised, but may also be offended: “I’m not an expert!” But in recognizing diseases and treating them, he considers himself a greater specialist than a doctor. Due to his technical and medical illiteracy, he believes that the human body is simpler than a clock mechanism or a soda fountain.

Those who know their body often resort to self-medication and treatment on the advice of family and friends, and if they go to a doctor, they themselves dictate what they need to prescribe. The tragic consequences that primitive medical knowledge, confidence in knowing one’s body, and distrust of medicine and medical workers can lead to are illustrated by the following example.

An elderly patient was brought to the clinic with a severe attack of cholelithiasis. He had attacks of biliary colic several times before - of varying duration and intensity, but ended happily. The attack of sharp pain ended this time as well, but dull pain, slightly elevated temperature, nausea, and belching remained; characteristic symptoms of gallbladder inflammation were present. The treatment continued, but the patient began to think about how to “notice” the improvement. Once he shared with his roommate: “On Saturday, my wife will bring vodka and cabbage rolls. Let’s drink to meet you.” A neighbor who had suffered a myocardial infarction not only refused this method of getting to know each other, but began to reproach him, warning him that his illness was not over yet and he could harm himself, and that he needed to follow the doctor’s advice. “What do you think, I don’t know my body? I know. I love cabbage rolls very much, and there will be no harm from them, and vodka is a good cure for diseases like mine. You’ll see.”

The connoisseur of his body laughed, drank to his heart’s content, “as much as his soul took,” and ate his favorite cabbage rolls. At night - a severe attack, exacerbation of cholecystitis. The most energetic medical measures turned out to be ineffective: the patient died a few days later. Such consequences of violations of doctor’s recommendations are observed relatively rarely. More often, the lack of discipline of patients and violations of the prescribed regimen lead to exacerbations of the disease, complications, as a result of which the disease and treatment are delayed, and the ability to work is not restored for a long time.

Persons with an anxious and suspicious character are of particular interest and great concern to medical workers. They take great care of their health, detect the most insignificant changes in well-being, and analyze unpleasant sensations with anxiety. If representatives of the first category are inclined to explain all sorts of unpleasant sensations by chance (which is often observed), then people who jealously guard their health are ready to attribute any new sensation, any change in their well-being and condition to some kind of illness, most often a “terrible one.” Those who have suffered an illness in the past that threatened their lives, or who have witnessed severe long-term illnesses of close relatives, develop and progress an anxious and suspicious state of anticipation of a terrible, irreparable illness that threatens, if not death, then severe disability, associated with the need for long-term treatment.

The tendency to constantly analyze one’s own feelings sometimes leads to the development of a special condition, which in medicine is called hypochondriacal syndrome. This condition is characterized by the fact that in the presence of any disease, the thought of unpleasant sensations or signs of illness takes on the character of an obsession and becomes a constant topic of conversation. Without understanding what they are doing, such people with illnesses often become allies of the disease, making treatment difficult by expecting the worst, their anxiety about the future, and sometimes disbelief in the effectiveness of treatment.

Some patients resort to reading textbooks, reference books for doctors, and the Great Medical Encyclopedia. Without appropriate preparation, they interpret what they read in their own way, incorrectly, pervertedly, usually exaggerating the significance of changes in well-being, changes in health, and attribute the most dangerous diseases to themselves.

There is no need to prove that the behavior and reasoning of those who hope for “maybe” (and so it will pass), skeptics and experts on their body, as well as people with an anxious and suspicious character not only deserve condemnation, but also require special attention from doctors, the need application of both psychotherapy and scientific explanations. Particularly dangerous are those who believe in healers, psychics, and just acquaintances who know the “right” means of treatment.

Information obtained from a textbook is not only superficial, but often distorted, and the advice of relatives and friends who recommend “proven”, reliable remedies and medicines is usually ignorant. Harm may be immediate if contraindicated treatment is used. On the other hand, ineffective and unjustified treatment often leads to the transition of an acute disease to a chronic one, accompanied by complications. The latter especially applies to malignant neoplasms (tumors).

Emotional instability and suspiciousness as a cause of disease

One cannot but agree with M. Montaigne, who wrote: “You constantly see how such patients do bloodletting, cleanse their stomachs and stuff themselves with medicines, trying to be cured of an imaginary illness. In such a patient, stones sometimes appear in the soul rather than in the kidneys , with his imagination he anticipates the pain and runs towards it himself, as if afraid that he will not have enough time to suffer from it when it actually falls on him.”

Who suffers from imaginary diseases and what causes them? A prerequisite for the occurrence of imaginary diseases is emotional instability, suspiciousness, impressionability, and therefore suggestibility is a mental property that is not only innate, but also largely acquired in the process of upbringing and training, as discussed above.

Imaginary illnesses arise more easily in the presence of contributing factors: neuropsychic stress, overwork, insomnia, behavioral and nutritional disorders. The importance of contributing factors increases in conditions of long-term, protracted negative emotions in connection with family troubles, work troubles, serious illness of loved ones and related care for the sick.

Sleepless nights at the bedside of a seriously ill patient, worry about his fate, worries about his suffering, eating disorders lead to phenomena such as loss of appetite, stool retention, rumbling in the intestines or pain in the stomach, weakness, headache, and so on. . Analysis of these sensations and comparison of them with what the patient had and what this led to suggests the possibility that they have the same illness. Under such conditions, impressionable and suspicious subjects may develop such forms of imaginary illnesses that saving them from suffering is often a difficult and painstaking task.

Pavlov said that the word for a person is “the same real irritant as all the others common to him with animals, but at the same time it is also so comprehensive as no others, which in this regard cannot be compared with conventional ones in any quantitative or qualitative way.” animal irritants."

Medical workers are no exception: among them there are people who are impressionable, suspicious, and easily suggestible. This is especially noticeable among medical students. In every stream of medical school there are students who “get sick” starting from the third year with at least one imaginary disease. In the third year it is usually rheumatic carditis or angina pectoris, in subsequent years it is tuberculosis, cancer, inflammation of the gallbladder and even syphilis. Individuals do not part with their fears and suspiciousness even after being doctors.

The fear of contracting a dangerous, serious, incurable disease sometimes develops into a kind of illness: suspiciousness and anticipation of illness in such cases take the ugly form of persecution mania, and prudent advice and explanations often do not succeed.

Of interest is the behavior of suspicious subjects when they discover a non-existent, imaginary disease. Some of them refuse a detailed examination for fear of detecting a serious illness. They prefer to worry, worry and be treated for a non-existent disease than to make sure of its absence. They are medically literate to the extent that their knowledge helps them attribute the most serious illnesses to themselves and believe that doctors are hiding from them a true disease that is truly life-threatening.

Others, on the contrary, having discovered slight changes in well-being, noticing minor functional impairments or pain sensations that frighten them with their novelty and unusualness, are ready for any examination in order to identify the cause and begin treatment in a timely manner. This behavior should be considered correct, and doctors also call for this - promptly consult a doctor for help if early symptoms of the disease appear. But sometimes, with a tendency to exaggerate or because of the expectation of serious consequences, some people turn to doctors with the most incredible assumptions when random and short-term unpleasant or unusual sensations are detected. “Something is dry in your mouth - is it diabetes?” “There’s a pain in the pit of my stomach, there’s belching - probably stomach cancer!” “Doctor, what are the signs of liver cancer? I sometimes have a bitter taste in my mouth. Is it not liver cancer?” “I came to get checked - my heart began to worry: no, no, and it’s going to stab me. Could it be a heart attack?”

The influence of a doctor on the occurrence of psychosomatic diseases

Unfortunately, there are many doctors who, instead of competently understanding the sensations and making sure that fears are unfounded, their behavior, perhaps without meaning to, reinforces the suspicions of patients. The word of a doctor who unqualifiedly explains this or that symptom, errors in diagnosis, an accidentally dropped phrase of a self-confident medical worker who is uncritical of his words and actions can serve as the cause of the origin of imaginary diseases that do not exist in the patient.

It is worth giving a few examples. There are many people who have become accustomed to the erroneous diagnosis of rheumatic heart disease or another disease. Subsequently, it can be difficult to part with such a diagnosis, especially if it provides the opportunity for abuse: sanatorium treatment, use of sick leave, termination of pregnancy for medical reasons. Conflict situations sometimes arise if a reputable medical institution, after a thorough examination, rejects the presence of a disease that gives the right to a sickness pension: complaints, requests, and demands for re-examination are received.

Quite often, some people become ill with imaginary angina, both due to self-hypnosis and due to erroneous diagnoses. A young woman of thirty began to feel stabbing pains “in the region of the heart.” She knew that angina is characterized by pain “in the region of the heart.” She consulted a doctor, who probably didn’t know well how angina pectoris manifests itself, and therefore stated that the woman had angina pectoris, that she should limit physical activity, walk less, not travel outside the city, and carry validol with her. The doctor's verdict made a strong impression. How difficult it was then for a qualified doctor, observing the appropriate tact suggested by medical ethics, to convince a woman of the error of the doctor’s diagnosis and recommendations, without calling him an ignoramus.

It is not always possible to convince some patients that they do not have angina, even after a thorough clinical examination, sometimes multiple times: such patients often call emergency doctors, and the latter sometimes take them (repeatedly) to hospitals with suspected myocardial infarction. Sending people with imaginary illnesses to a resort only strengthens their belief in the existence of the illness. Meetings and conversations with patients of the relevant profile often bring great harm to the patients: impressionable, nervous patients find new evidence that they are sick. Therefore, when a doctor is convinced that there is no real illness, when he is sure that this illness is the result of neurosis, such patients can only be sent to general neurosomatic, and not specialized sanatoriums.

Hypertension is also sometimes the cause of unreasonable behavior of patients. As a result of incorrect orientation of patients, instilling in them false ideas about the course and complications of hypertension, patients become severely neurotic. Nowadays, the most common imaginary disease, besides angina and rheumatism, is cancer of various localizations. Fear of cancer takes on a wide scope, which is not always to the benefit of patients. An anxious and suspicious character, unfounded suspicions and assumptions, together with the behavior of a doctor who does not know how to dispel the anxiety and fears of patients, are fertile ground for the emergence and development of neuroses.

On the other hand, it is known that chronic somatic diseases, such as hypertension, atherosclerosis, chronic diseases of the stomach, intestines and kidneys, can manifest themselves as neurasthenic symptoms, such as unmotivated irritability, bad mood, restless sleep, sometimes with frightening dreams, tearfulness , fast fatiguability.

Patients with neuroses usually vividly describe their feelings, real and imaginary. In the heap, in the chaos of various information reported by patients, it is difficult to understand, it is difficult to understand what is reliable in them, what is less likely or completely unlikely: patients are often inclined, on the basis of information gleaned from reference books, to exaggerate (unconsciously, of course) secondary symptoms, seem most important to them. On the contrary, sometimes very significant symptoms of great diagnostic significance remain unexplained, since the patients themselves do not attach importance to them.

If there are pronounced symptoms of neurosis, the doctor may overlook the somatic disease that caused the neurosis or more pronounced manifestations of an existing neurosis. Not only high qualifications and experience of the doctor are required, but also great patience in order to capture in the story what is essential for diagnosis, sweeping away everything unnecessary and unimportant, no matter how colorfully it is described. A doctor’s diagnostic error is equally dangerous for patients both in the case of recognizing a non-existent disease and in the case when a real somatic disease is not recognized.

The main methods of treating imaginary illnesses are psychotherapy and time, especially the latter: time passes, a person becomes convinced that he has not died, become disabled or even taken to bed, and gradually forgets that just recently he “suffered” - physically and mentally - from a serious imaginary illness. Self-hypnosis is also of great importance. This requires strong character and strong will.

Psychosomatic and somatopsychic interactions and illness.

The possibilities of somatopsychic and psychosomatic mutual influences have long been known. However, recently this problem has acquired such importance that it deserves special consideration. The basis for this is, first of all, the search for ways to scientifically evaluate the mechanism and role of such influences. Psychosomatic mutual influences, as well as psychosomatic diseases, are an objective reality. Therefore, it is necessary to correctly understand their mechanisms, although many of them have not yet been revealed by science. Modern physiological research and clinical observations make it possible to trace in detail some forms of psychosomatic influences.

Difficult life situations and the corresponding human experiences can significantly change the function of the stomach. Fear, severe mental shock, and depressive experiences lead to its hypofunction. On the contrary, indignation and anger excessively enhance various aspects of the activity of the stomach. In patients who, due to certain circumstances, had a gastric fistula, the changes occurring in its mucous membrane during mental disorders of the subjects were studied. It turned out that in a state of deep disappointment and during severe mental conflicts, an increase in the activity of the stomach is accompanied by hyperemia and swelling of the mucous membrane.

From clinical practice, numerous facts are known about changes in the frequency and filling of the pulse, blood pressure, frequency and volume of breathing, blood flow speed, intensity of sweating and many other autonomic reactions during emotional excitement. No less convincing are significant changes in metabolism, especially the secretion of adrenaline. Such changes are either transient or clearly persistent.

Psychosomatic and somatopsychic influences sometimes powerfully transform a person’s usual reality, coming into conflict even with the instinct of self-preservation. The power of creative imagination is so great that it can lead to the most complex bodily changes, clearly recorded and accurately identified by the imagination of the same person. It is known how the French writer Flaubert, in the heat of creative inspiration, captured by the description of the poisoning of the heroine of his novel with arsenic, so vividly imagined the appearance of signs of poisoning in her that many of these signs arose in himself.

Thus, the facts not only convincingly confirm the existence of psychosomatic and somatopsychic influences, but also bring us closer to understanding the complex patterns that underlie them. It is no coincidence that new definitions of the disease increasingly emphasize the role of the mental factor.

Any schemes are conditional, therefore the separation of psychosomatic diseases from numerous diseases of internal organs is conditional. However, it should be assumed that in some somatic diseases the importance of the mental factor, mental overstrain is so great for their occurrence and development that they can and should be classified as a group of psychosomatic diseases. The specific genesis of these diseases determines both the uniqueness of their clinical picture and the mechanism of development, as well as the features of their prevention and treatment.

Psychosomatics has now become widespread; its development actually occurred hand in hand with the emergence of psychoanalysis. It is therefore no coincidence that Freudianism is important as the theoretical basis of modern psychosomatics. The main goal of psychosomatic medicine is the study of diseases in the origin of which psychosomatic influences play a leading role. Moreover, as was shown earlier, both psychosomatic and somatopsychic mutual influences are an objective reality, and isolating psychosomatic diseases from the abundance of internal diseases is quite justified.

Psychosomatic medicine proceeds from the fact that a person’s actions and actions are determined not only by the social environment around him, but also by human instincts and tendencies that can change in the conditions of modern society.

The influence of the patient’s behavior and attitude towards his illness on its development.

The relationship between the objective content of the disease and its awareness is revealed more clearly if we consider them on a relatively simple model. An incised wound on the palmar surface of the last phalanx of the index finger of the right hand. Its surface is clean, the bleeding stopped quickly. In general, this is a fairly common and, as a rule, harmless tissue damage. At the same time, the external uniformity of such a wound in different patients is accompanied by a different assessment: from complete peace of mind and an indifferent attitude towards it, the perception of such a wound as an insignificant, transient phenomenon to panic-stricken fear with an exaggerated concentration of attention on it and an abundance of accompanying vegetative disorders. The same trends can be observed in patients with closed fractures of limb bones without displacement of fragments. In different such patients, many of the circumstances of the disease turn out to be the same: they always have the factor of surprise of what happened, the factor of novelty of the condition, and the biological mechanism of injury is fundamentally the same.

Criteria that determine a person’s attitude towards his condition

The types of responses to illness are almost never straightforward. It is not difficult to see that these differences are primarily due to different awareness of the disease, different, in particular premorbid, features of the formation of ideas about one’s own body. The second criterion that determines the genesis of the body image is the complex integration of the individual's structure. The topography of the body model forms the basis of a person's affective relationship to his body. The third principle of forming ideas about the body is revealed in the mobility and plasticity of the model, which is in constant self-construction and self-destruction. Once formed, ideas about the body tend to be relatively stable. There are a number of significant interrelated aspects in the consciousness of illness. Firstly, all changes in the body that are new to the individual are reflected in his consciousness. Over time, as a result of the repetition of similar or similar painful conditions or the protracted course of the disease, the knowledge about the disease accumulated in his subjective experience is correlated more fully and in detail.

Secondly, in continuous unity with such a process of reflection of the disease in the patient’s consciousness, his individual attitude to the ongoing changes in the body, to the disease itself, and its possible individual consequences is formed. This attitude initially finds expression in the characteristics of the patient’s general well-being. In some patients it can persist only within the limits of internal experiences or acquire various forms of expression in a dream (words, appeals, complaints, advice, requests, actions, deeds, behavior).

At first, the consciousness of illness, while being a new experience for the patient, may not significantly change the psyche itself. However, as a rule, a more or less long-term reflection (especially protracted, disabling) painful changes occurring in the internal organs in the patient’s consciousness and the concomitant complication of his attitude towards the disease bring transient or persistent changes to its clinic. These changes in the same disease and with the same objective changes in the systems (organs) of the body turn out to be different due to two main circumstances: firstly, the premorbid characteristics of the patient’s psyche and, secondly, the characteristics of his personality.

The reflection in consciousness of the painful changes that have arisen in the internal organs occurs in unity with the formation of the patient’s attitude towards them. And yet, since there is never identity between the reflected object and its image, there is never a complete correspondence between the idea of ​​the disease reflected in the patient’s mind and its objective nature.

The consciousness of the disease and its internal picture thus cover the entire scope of the patient’s experiences associated with his illness. This includes ideas about the meaning for him of the first, early (initial) manifestations of the disease; features of changes in well-being due to the complication of disorders; experiencing the condition and its possible consequences at the height of the disease; ideas about the beginning improvement of well-being at the stage of reverse development of the disease and restoration of health after its cessation; ideas about the possible consequences of the disease for oneself, for the family, for further productive activity; ideas about the attitude of family members, acquaintances, and medical personnel towards him during illness. There are practically no aspects of a patient’s life that are not reflected in his consciousness, modified by the disease. In other words, illness is life in altered conditions.

Knowledge of the laws of personality formation allows us to systematically correct its abnormal qualities, resorting to the use of optimal methods of educating and training a person, thereby preventing the formation of abnormal forms of character and, what is even more significant, borderline neuropsychic and psychosomatic disorders. Personality is always, on the one hand, monolithic, unified and integral for a given person, and on the other hand, it is distinguished by plurality, diversity, and multi-representation in different circumstances of life. It is personality, as the highest manifestation of a person’s individuality, that provides the most complex system of his relationships with reality, a system of relationships in various changing circumstances of the social environment.

The level of development of a personality is revealed in its abilities, functional capabilities of mental activity (state of emotionality, direction of interests) and determines the degree of its simplicity or complexity, its generality or differentiation, its coarseness or subtlety. The general structure of personality is revealed in its typical interconnection of its main components. A fundamentally integral personality is always distinguished by the unity of its form of expression (behavior) and content (decisiveness, constancy). As we see, a normal personality provides a high degree of adaptation to diverse conditions of the social environment and various stressful situations, thereby providing a kind of “psychological” immunity to psychopathic disorders.

Famous scientist A.V. Petrovsky wrote: “... One and the same manifestation of the psyche can be considered in different respects. For example, affect as a mental state is a generalized characteristic of the emotional, cognitive and behavioral aspects of the subject’s psyche in a certain relatively limited period of time; as a mental process, it is characterized by stages in the development of emotions; it can also be considered as a manifestation of an individual’s mental properties (hot temper, lack of restraint, anger). Mental states include manifestations of feelings (mood, affects, euphoria, anxiety, frustration, etc.), attention (concentration, absent-mindedness), will (decisiveness, absent-mindedness, composure), thinking (doubt), imagination (dreams), etc. . The subject of special study in psychology is the mental states of people under stress under extreme circumstances (in a combat situation, during exams, when emergency decision-making is necessary), in critical situations (pre-race mental states of athletes, etc.). In pathopsychology and medical psychology, pathological forms of mental states are studied - obsessive states, in social psychology - mass mental states."

“Mental state is one of three types of mental phenomena, particular psychological categories: in humans, it is an intermediate link between a short-term mental process and a personality trait. Mental states are quite long-lasting (can last for months), although they can change quickly when conditions change or due to adaptation.”

“Mental states are a broad psychological category that covers various types of integrated reflection of the situation (impacts on the subject of both internal and external stimuli), without a clear awareness of their substantive content. Examples of mental states include: vigor, fatigue, mental satiety, apathy, depression, alienation, loss of a sense of reality (derealization), experiencing “what has already been seen,” boredom, anxiety, etc.” .

In its turn emotional states- these are a person’s experiences of his relationship to the surrounding reality and to himself at a certain point in time, relatively typical for a given person; those states that are regulated primarily by the emotional sphere and cover emotional reactions and emotional relationships; relatively stable experiences.

The main emotional states that a person experiences are divided into emotions, feelings and affects. Emotions and feelings anticipate the process aimed at satisfying a need, have an ideational character and are, as it were, at the beginning of it. Emotions and feelings express the meaning of a situation for a person from the point of view of a currently relevant need, the significance of the upcoming action or activity for its satisfaction. Emotions can be caused by both real and imagined situations. They, like feelings, are perceived by a person as his own internal experiences, transmitted to other people, and empathized with.

Emotions are relatively weakly manifested in external behavior, sometimes from the outside they are completely invisible to an outsider, if a person knows how to hide his feelings well. They, accompanying one or another behavioral act, are not always conscious, although all behavior, as we have found out, is associated with emotions, since it is aimed at satisfying a need. A person's emotional experience is usually much broader than the experience of his individual experiences. A person’s feelings, on the contrary, are outwardly very noticeable.

Emotions and feelings are personal formations. They characterize a person socially and psychologically. Emotions usually follow the actualization of the motive and before the rational assessment of the adequacy of the subject’s activity to it. They are a direct reflection, an experience of existing relationships, and not their reflection. Emotions are capable of anticipating situations and events that have not yet actually occurred, and arise in connection with ideas about previously experienced or imagined situations.

Feelings are objective in nature and are associated with a representation or idea about a certain object. Another feature of feelings is that they are improved and, developing, form a number of levels, starting from immediate feelings and ending with higher feelings related to spiritual values ​​and ideals.

The feelings are historical. They vary among different peoples and can be expressed differently in different historical periods among people belonging to the same nations and cultures. In the individual development of a person, feelings play an important socializing role. They act as a significant factor in the formation of personality, especially its motivational sphere. On the basis of positive emotional experiences such as feelings, the needs and interests of a person appear and are consolidated.

Feelings are a product of human cultural and historical development. They are associated with certain objects, activities and people surrounding a person. Feelings play a motivating role in a person’s life and activity, in his communication with people around him. In relation to the world around him, a person strives to act in such a way as to reinforce and strengthen his positive feelings. For him, they are always connected with the work of consciousness and can be voluntarily regulated.

The most general emotional state that colors all human behavior for a long time is called mood. It is very diverse and can be joyful or sad, cheerful or depressed, cheerful or depressed, calm or irritated, etc. Mood is an emotional reaction not to the direct consequences of certain events, but to their significance for a person’s life in the context of his general life plans, interests and expectations.

The most powerful emotional reaction is affect. Affect(from Latin affectuctus - “mental excitement”) - a strong and relatively short-term emotional state associated with a sharp change in life circumstances important to the subject and accompanied by pronounced motor manifestations and changes in the functions of internal organs. Affect completely takes over the human psyche. This entails a narrowing and sometimes even a shutdown of consciousness, changes in thinking and, as a consequence, inappropriate behavior. For example, with severe anger, many people lose the ability to constructively resolve conflicts. Their anger turns into aggression. The person screams, blushes, waves his arms, and may hit the enemy.

Affect occurs sharply, suddenly in the form of a flash, an impulse. Managing and coping with this condition is very difficult. Any feeling can be experienced in an affective form. At the same time, it would be wrong to think that affect is completely uncontrollable. Despite the apparent suddenness, affect has certain stages of development. And if at the final stages, when a person completely loses control over himself, it is almost impossible to stop, then at the beginning any normal person can do this. Of course, this requires enormous willpower. The most important thing here is to delay the onset of affect, to “extinguish” the affective outburst, to restrain yourself, and not to lose power over your behavior.

Affects are particularly pronounced emotional states, accompanied by visible changes in the behavior of the person who experiences them. Affect does not precede behavior, but is, as it were, shifted to its end. This is a reaction that arises as a result of an action or deed that has already been committed and expresses its subjective emotional coloring from the point of view of the extent to which, as a result of this action, it was possible to achieve the set goal, to satisfy the need that stimulated it. Affects contribute to the formation of so-called affective complexes in perception, expressing the integrity of the perception of certain situations. The development of affect is subject to the following law: the stronger the initial motivational stimulus of behavior and the more effort had to be spent on implementing it, the smaller the result obtained as a result of all this, the stronger the resulting affect. Unlike emotions and feelings, affects occur violently, quickly, and are accompanied by pronounced organic changes and motor reactions.

Affects have a negative impact on human activity, sharply reducing the level of its organization, and changing typical behavior. They are capable of leaving strong and lasting traces in long-term memory. Unlike affects, the work of emotions and feelings is associated primarily with short-term and operative memory. Emotional tension accumulated as a result of the occurrence of affectogenic situations can accumulate and sooner or later, if it is not released in time, lead to a strong and violent emotional release, which, while relieving tension, often entails a feeling of fatigue, depression, depression.

One of the most common types of affects these days is stress. Under stress(from the English stress - “pressure”, “tension”) understand the emotional state that arises in response to all kinds of extreme influences. It is a state of excessively strong and prolonged psychological stress that occurs in a person when his nervous system receives emotional overload. Stress disorganizes a person’s activities and disrupts the normal course of his behavior. Stress, especially if it is frequent and prolonged, has a negative impact not only on the psychological state, but also on a person’s physical health.

No person manages to live and work without experiencing stress. Everyone experiences severe life losses, failures, trials, conflicts, and stress when performing difficult or responsible work from time to time. Some people cope with stress more easily than others, e.g. are stress-resistant.

Passion- another type of complex, qualitatively unique and occurring only in humans emotional states. Passion is a fusion of emotions, motives and feelings concentrated around a specific activity or subject. A person can become the object of passion. S.L. Rubinstein wrote that passion is always expressed in concentration, concentration of thoughts and forces, their focus on a single goal... Passion means impulse, passion, orientation of all aspirations and forces of the individual in a single direction, their concentration on a single goal.

Close in its manifestations to stress is the emotional state of frustration.

Frustration(from Latin frustration - “deception”, “frustration”, “destruction of plans”) - a human state caused by objectively insurmountable (or subjectively perceived) difficulties that arise on the way to achieving a goal.

Frustration is accompanied by a whole set of negative emotions that can destroy consciousness and activity. In a state of frustration, a person can show anger, depression, external and internal aggression. For example, when performing any activity a person fails, which causes him negative emotions - grief, dissatisfaction with himself. If in such a situation the people around you support you and help you correct your mistakes, the emotions you experience will remain just an episode in a person’s life. If failures are repeated, and significant others reproach, shame, call him incapable or lazy, this person usually develops an emotional state of frustration.

The level of frustration depends on the strength and intensity of the influencing factor, the person’s condition and his or her existing forms of response to life’s difficulties. Especially often, the source of frustration is a negative social assessment that affects significant relationships of the individual. A person’s resistance (tolerance) to frustrating factors depends on the degree of his emotional excitability, type of temperament, and experience of interaction with such factors.

An emotional state close to stress is the “ emotional burnout" This condition occurs in a person if, in a situation of mental or physical stress, he experiences negative emotions for a long time. At the same time, he can neither change the situation nor cope with negative emotions. Emotional burnout manifests itself in a decrease in the overall emotional background, indifference, avoidance of responsibility, negativism or cynicism towards other people, loss of interest in professional success, and limitation of one’s capabilities. As a rule, the causes of emotional burnout are monotony and monotony of work, lack of career growth, professional inconsistency, age-related changes and socio-psychological disadaptation. Internal conditions for the occurrence of emotional burnout may be accentuation of a certain type of character, high anxiety, aggressiveness, conformity, and an inadequate level of aspirations. Emotional burnout hinders professional and personal growth and, like stress, leads to psychosomatic disorders.

Many scientists have made attempts to give universal classifications of emotions, and each of them put forward their own basis for this. Thus, T. Brown based the classification on the temporal sign, dividing emotions into immediate, i.e., manifested “here and now,” retrospective and prospective. Reed built a classification based on the relationship to the source of action. He divided all emotions into three groups: 1) which are characterized by a mechanical origin (instincts, habits); 2) emotions with an animal origin (appetite, desire, affectation); 3) emotions with a rational beginning (pride, duty). D. Stewart's classification differs from the previous one in that the first two Reed groups are combined into one class of instinctive emotions. I. Kant reduced all emotions to two groups, which were based on the reason for the emergence of emotions: sensory and intellectual emotions. At the same time, he attributed affects and passions to the volitional sphere.

G. Spencer proposed dividing feelings based on their occurrence and reproduction into four classes. To the first, he included presentational feelings (sensations) that arise directly from the action of external stimuli. To the second class - presentational-representational, or simple, emotions, for example fear. He included in the third class representative emotions evoked by poetry as a stimulus that does not have a specific objective embodiment. Finally, Spencer included in the fourth class higher, abstract emotions that are formed without the help of an external stimulus in an abstract way (for example, a sense of justice).

For example, A. Ben identified 12 classes of emotions, and the founder of scientific psychology V. Wundt believed that the number of emotions (more precisely, shades of the emotional tone of sensations) is so large (considerably more than 50,000) that the language does not have a sufficient number of words to designate them. The American psychologist E. Titchener took the opposite position. He believed that there are only two types of emotional tone of sensations: pleasure and displeasure. In his opinion, Wundt confused two different phenomena: feelings and feeling. Feeling, according to Titchener, is a complex process consisting of sensation and feelings of pleasure or displeasure (in the modern sense - emotional tone). The appearance of the existence of a large number of emotions (feelings), according to Titchener, is created by the fact that an emotional tone can accompany innumerable combinations of sensations, forming a corresponding number of feelings. Titchener distinguished between emotions, mood and complex feelings (sentimentes), in which states of pleasure and displeasure play a significant role.

The difficulty of classifying emotions lies in the fact that, on the one hand, it is difficult to determine whether the identified emotion is really an independent type or whether it is a designation of the same emotion in different words (synonyms), and on the other hand, whether it is a new verbal designation emotions are only a reflection of the degree of its expression (for example, anxiety - fear - horror).

This was also noted by W. James, who wrote: “The difficulties that arise in psychology when analyzing emotions stem, it seems to me, from the fact that they are too accustomed to being viewed as completely separate phenomena from each other. So long as we regard each of them as some eternal, inviolable spiritual entity, like the species once considered immutable entities in biology, so long we can only respectfully catalog the various features of the emotions, their degrees, and the actions produced by them. If we begin to consider them as products of more general causes (for example, in biology, the difference between species is considered as a product of variability under the influence of environmental conditions and the transmission of acquired changes through heredity), then the establishment of differences and classification will acquire the meaning of simple auxiliary means.

As P.V. Simonov notes, none of the proposed classifications received wide recognition and did not become an effective tool for further searches and clarifications. This is explained by the fact that all these classifications were built on an incorrect theoretical basis, namely, on the understanding of emotions as a force that directly guides behavior. As a result, emotions appeared that encourage one to strive for an object or avoid it, sthenic and asthenic emotions, etc.

Division of emotions according to the type of contact of living beings. P.V. Simonov, based on the nature of the interaction of living beings with objects that can satisfy an existing need (contact or remote), proposed a classification of emotions presented in Table 1.

Table 1 - Classification of human emotions depending on character

actions

Amount of need	Assessing the probability of satisfaction	Contact interaction with an object	Remote Actions
			mastery, possession of an object	conservation	overcoming, fighting for an object
Growing	Exceeds available forecast	Enjoyment, pleasure		Fearlessness, courage, confidence	Celebration, inspiration, cheerfulness
Small		Indifference	Calm	Relaxation	Equanimity
Growing		Displeasure, disgust, suffering	Anxiety, sadness, grief, despair	Wariness, anxiety, fear, horror	Impatience, indignation, anger, rage, rage

The author of this classification believes that it is also valid for those human emotions that are caused by the needs of a higher social order, therefore he does not agree with S.X. Rappoport, who assessed it as a reflection of the biological theory of motivation.

According to E.P. Ilyin, the advantage of the classification described above is the attempt to find a criterion by which one can differentiate the emotional tone of sensations from the emotions themselves (contact forms of interaction for the former and distant forms for the latter). But in general, this classification does little to clarify the truth, since for some reason it contains not only emotions, but also volitional qualities (courage, fearlessness) or emotional and personal characteristics (equanimity, optimism).

Later P.V. Simonov, despite the statement about the hopelessness of constructing a complete classification of emotions, again reproduces his classification, albeit in a shortened form. It is based on a system of two coordinate axes: the attitude towards one’s condition and the nature of interaction with objects that can satisfy the existing need.

As a result, he received four pairs of “basic” emotions: pleasure-disgust, joy-sorrow, confidence-fear, triumph-rage. Each of these emotions has qualitative differences in experiences (shades), which are entirely determined by the need, in connection with the satisfaction of which this emotional state arises. The author believes that this classification inevitably follows from the “theory of emotions” he develops. Whether this is true or not is difficult to judge, but the question arises: why is confidence an emotion, and a basic one at that? Why can’t I experience pleasure when I’m happy, and disgust when I’m angry? And if I can, then which emotion will be basic and which will not?

Perhaps the answer to the last question may be that in addition to the basic positive and negative emotions that manifest themselves in their pure form, Simonov also identifies complex mixed emotions that arise when two or more needs are simultaneously actualized. In this case, as P.V. writes. Simonov, complex emotional chords can arise (Table 2).

Table 2 - Examples of emotional states arising on the basis of two

coexisting needs

Second need	First need
	pleasure	disgust
Pleasure	Summation
Disgust	Threshold states, satiation	Summation
	Often combined	Defeated Scoundrel	Summation
	Religious "accept suffering"	The need to do something in grief	separation	Summation
	Attractions, risk		A desired meeting with an unknown outcome	A new danger against the backdrop of an already suffered loss	Summation
		Contempt	Schadenfreude, triumph	Disturbance	A Kind of Hate	Summation

Based on the identification of basic and secondary needs, emotions are divided into primary (basic) - joy, fear and secondary (intellectual) - interest, excitement (Vladislavlev, 1881; Kondash, 1981; Olshannikova, 1983). In this division, it is incomprehensible to include excitement in intellectual emotions (if it is advisable to talk about such things at all), and to classify interest as an emotion - a motivational rather than an emotional formation. If we follow this principle, then all motivational formations (drives, desires, personality orientation, etc.) must be attributed to emotions (which, unfortunately, is observed by some authors).

B.I. Dodonov identified the following types of emotions: altruistic, communicative, gloric, praxic emotions, pugnistic emotions, romantic, gnostic, aesthetic, hedonistic and akizative emotions. He notes that it is generally impossible to create a universal classification of emotions, therefore a classification suitable for solving one range of problems turns out to be ineffective when solving another range of problems. He proposed his own classification of emotions, and not for all, but only for those of them in which a person most often feels the need and which attach direct value to the very process of his activity, which thanks to this acquires the quality of interesting work or study, “sweet” dreams, gratifying memories, etc. For this reason, sadness was included in his classification (since there are people who like to be slightly sad) and envy was not included (since even envious people cannot be said to like to envy). Thus, the classification proposed by Dodonov concerns only “valuable,” in his terminology, emotions. Essentially, the basis of this classification are needs and goals, i.e., the motives that certain emotions serve. It should be noted that the author often includes desires and aspirations in the category of “emotional tools,” i.e., signs of identifying a given group of emotions, which creates confusion.

A more adequate understanding of the classification carried out by B.I. Dodonov, from the point of view of E.P. Ilyin, is available from E.I. Semenenko, who considers the emotions identified by Dodonov as types of emotional orientation. Among the students of the pedagogical institute, these types, according to the brightness of their manifestation, were arranged as follows:

When assessing oneself: praxic, communicative, altruistic, aesthetic, gnostic, gloric, hedonistic, romantic, fearful, active;

When assessed by peers: praxic, acquisitive, communicative, hedonistic, romantic, gloric, aesthetic, gnostic, altruistic, fearful.

As can be seen from this list, the coincidence was observed in relation only to the praxic and pugnic types of emotional orientation.

The division of emotions into primary (basic) and secondary is characteristic of supporters of a discrete model of the human emotional sphere. However, different authors name different numbers of basic emotions - from two to ten. P. Ekman and his colleagues, based on the study of facial expression, identify six such emotions: anger, fear, disgust, surprise, sadness and joy. R. Plutchik identifies eight basic emotions, dividing them into four pairs, each of which is associated with a specific action: 1) destruction (anger) - defense (fear); 2) acceptance (approval) - rejection (disgust); 3) reproduction (joy) - deprivation (dejection); 4) exploration (expectation) - orientation (surprise).

K. Izard names 10 basic emotions: anger, contempt, disgust, distress (grief-suffering), fear, guilt, interest, joy, shame, surprise.

From his point of view, basic emotions must have the following mandatory characteristics: 1) have distinct and specific neural substrates; 2) manifest themselves through an expressive and specific configuration of muscle movements of the face (facial expressions); 3) entail a distinct and specific experience that is conscious to the person; 4) arose as a result of evolutionary biological processes; 5) have an organizing and motivating influence on a person, serve his adaptation.

However, Izard himself admits that some emotions classified as basic do not have all these characteristics. Thus, the emotion of guilt does not have a clear facial and pantomimic expression. On the other hand, some researchers attribute other characteristics to basic emotions.

Obviously, those emotions that have deep phylogenetic roots can be called basic, that is, they are present not only in humans, but also in animals. Other emotions that are unique to humans (shame, guilt) do not apply to them. Interest and shyness can hardly be called emotions either.

Close to this is the division of emotions by R. Plutchik into primary and secondary (the latter means combinations of two or more primary emotions). Thus, he classifies secondary emotions as pride (anger + joy), love (joy + acceptance), curiosity (surprise + acceptance), modesty (fear + acceptance), etc. It is not difficult to notice that his emotions included feelings, and moral qualities (modesty) and a very strange emotion - acceptance.

VC. Viliunas divides emotions into two fundamental groups: leading and situational (derived from the former). The first group consists of experiences generated by specific mechanisms of needs and coloring objects directly related to them. These experiences usually arise when a certain need intensifies and an object that responds to it is reflected. They precede the corresponding activity, encourage it and are responsible for its general direction. They largely determine the direction of other emotions, which is why they are called leading by the author.

The second group includes situational emotional phenomena generated by universal motivation mechanisms and aimed at circumstances that mediate the satisfaction of needs. They arise already in the presence of a leading emotion, i.e. in the process of activity (internal or external), and express the motivational significance of conditions that facilitate its implementation or make it difficult (fear, anger), specific achievements in it (joy, grief), existing or possible situations, etc. Derived emotions are united by their conditioning by the situation and the activity of the subject, dependence on leading emotional phenomena.

If leading experiences reveal to the subject the significance of the very object of the need, then by derived emotions the same function is performed in relation to the situation, the conditions for satisfying the need. In derivative emotions, the need is, as it were, objectified secondarily and more broadly - in relation to the conditions surrounding its object.

Analyzing situational emotions in a person, Viliunas identifies a class of success-failure emotions with three subgroups:

1) stated success or failure;

2) anticipating success-failure;

3) generalized success-failure.

Emotions that indicate success or failure are responsible for changing behavioral strategies; a generalized emotion of success or failure arises as a result of evaluating the activity as a whole; anticipatory emotions of success and failure are formed on the basis of ascertaining ones as a result of their association with the details of the situation. When a situation arises again, these emotions allow one to anticipate events and encourage a person to act in a certain direction.

L.V. Kulikov divides emotions (“feelings”) into activation ones, which include cheerfulness, joy, excitement, tension (emotions of tension) - anger, fear, anxiety, and self-esteem - sadness, guilt, shame, confusion.

Thus, emotions differ in many ways: modality (quality), intensity, duration, awareness, depth, genetic source, complexity, conditions of occurrence, functions performed, impact on the body. According to the last of these parameters, emotions are divided into sthenic and asthenic. The former activate the body and lift the mood, while the latter relax and suppress. In addition, emotions are divided into lower and higher, as well as by the objects with which they are associated (objects, events, people, etc.).