"[9] Disgust: physically, the lower lip is raised and protruding while the head is forward and down" (page 106)
Bradshaw says that Tomkins "made it clinically clear that without the amplification of feelings (affects), nothing matters" -- as when we numb out (page 107). However, when we are able to amplify our feeling (affects), they enhance the functioning of our cognition, desire, decision, and action.
Bradshaw says, "In my own recovery program, the more I owned and expressed my feelings, the more I moved away from my thinking denials and faulty choices" (page 107).
No doubt progressives and liberals would like to see conservatives move away from their thinking denials such as their denials of human influence on climate change and their faulty choices in certain policy issues involving deregulation, for example.
Bradshaw also says, "Feelings [affects] are the old brain's way of thinking" (page 107). The new brain is the neo-cortex with its two hemispheres (the right hemisphere and the left hemisphere). The American neurosurgeon Paul D. MacLean refers to what Bradshaw here refers to as the old brain as the paleo-mammalian brain. The paleo-mammalian brain is the biological base of what Danial Goleman refers to as emotional intelligence in his book Emotional Intelligence (Bantam Books, 1995).
MacLean refers to the oldest layer or part of the human brain as the reptilian brain. The reptilian brain is the biological base of our fight/flight/freeze response. It is also the biological base of biological protection. But Bradshaw lumps the reptilian brain together with the paleo-mammalian brain when he refers to "the old brain" (page 107).
Bradshaw says, "As our sense of self evolves [toward optimal vitality and a firm sense of self], dissmell and disgust move beyond biological protection and become a part of our emotional self-protection system" (page 107).
In Bradshaw's estimate, shame becomes toxic shame in early childhood as a result of traumatization. According to him, toxic shame binds the other eight basic feeling/affects. In the final analysis, optimal human development and growth can emerge only to the extent to which a person's toxic shame has been healed. He sees the healing of toxic shame as involving mourning.
Bradshaw says, "No affect contributes more to the formation of our sense of solid selfhood; no affect is more destructive to our sense of self. The most important impact of toxic shame is its effect on the sense of self" (page 113).
Bradshaw says, "[Healthy] shame safeguards our boundaries and our limitations. . . . We need structure and boundaries in order to be truly free" (page 112).
At times, Bradshaw switches from using conventional psychological terminology to using the term "will" from our Western philosophical tradition of thought. Will is involved in our exercise of free choice. He refers to the will being dis-abled by toxic shame.
For an informed historical study of will in Western thought, see Vernon J. Bourke's book Will in Western Thought: A Historico-Critical Survey (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1964).
Now, like many other authors today, Bradshaw emphasizes brain plasticity. The plasticity of the brain changes as we recover from toxic shame and its binding of our affects (feelings). As we resolve our experiences of traumatization through healthy mourning, we experience restored vitality as a result of our brain plasticity.
May he rest in peace.
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