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I am writing this letter to emphasize my appreciation for the brilliant and comprehensive paper on recent findings in understanding the physiology of emotions appearing in the J. Am. Acad. Psychoanal. Dyn. Psychiatr. Vol. 15, pp. 133-151, entitled “A Systems Theoretical Approach to the Understanding of Emotions” by Alexander Rogawski, M.D., and to bring this paper to the attention of the membership.
Rogawski describes the influences of physics on the theories of emotions and demonstrates the difficulties with a metapsychological explanation of emotions.
His summary of the interpersonal approaches and why a unitary theory of affects has not been formulated is beautifully stated in one of the most succinct and lucid descriptions of systems theory I have ever read. Each of his paragraphs could be expanded into an essay in itself.
I might add that his explanation as to the untenability of a “discharge model” is correct for the reasons stated and, additionally, can be observed to be valid even in infants who often are seen to seek stimulation and an increase of tension rather than the reverse.
This paper and others written by such excellent theoreticians as R. N. Emde, George Engel, Judd Marmor, E. Peterfreund, J. Spiegel, and others, helps to place our field in a more scientifically acceptable framework.