Emotional attachment

In sum, Wilkinson focuses his explanatory hypothesis on social anxiety. He links social anxiety to shame, depression and violence, and emphasizes that social anxiety has its roots in perceptions of inferiority, unattractiveness, failure or rejection. This helps explain why health is so closely related to lack of friends, low social status, violence and poor early emotional attachment, all of which are associated with similar patterns of raised basal cortisol levels and attenuated responses to experimental stressors. He concludes, therefore, that social anxiety is a very plausible central source of the chronic anxiety that depresses health standards and feeds into the socioeconomic gradient in health. As he puts it, the most important psychosocial determinant of population health is the levels of the various forms of social anxiety in the population, and these in turn are determined by income distribution, early childhood and social networks (Wilkinson, 1999, p. 60). Thus, social anxiety is suggested as an explanation for the links between health and friendship, health and early emotional development, health and the direct psychosocial effects of low social status, the patterning of violence and health in relation to inequality, and health and social cohesion (Wilkinson, 1999, p. 61). 

Simonds, Merilyn. Code of Arms. Canadian Geographic, vol. 116, March-April 1996, pp. 44ff. Describes the gun scene in Canada, which has a reasonable number of guns but does not have the emotional attachment to them that many people in the United States have. Simonds reviews the different historical experiences that people in Canada and the United States have had with firearms. She also discusses events that have heated up the gun control debate in Canada. A related article gives a brief chronology of gun control in Canada. 

When a shift of view demands the acceptance of critical feedback, it is understandable that it be met with resistance or denial blame for failure laid elsewhere. More curious perhaps is the case of people with a poor self-image who respond to positive feedback with denial of its validity, attributing their success to luck or the efforts of others. Or even denying that there has been a success. Emotional attachments to feeling not okay can sometimes be very powerful. 

Now here is where the neat trick comes in. Whenever we have mental maps that work well, we tend to forget that they are abstractions we use to make sense of our experience and begin to think that they are truth. We become emotionally attached to these useful maps and regard questions about their adequacy as personal attacks. This is what has happened with our maps, our scientific theories about the external world and the brain. In innumerable ways, they are exceptionally good maps. But we have come to believe in them so much that if something that happens cannot be adequately located on the map, we can readily talk ourselves into believing that it did not happen in the way in which we experienced it, that it was a mistake. We have faith that it really does fit on one of our maps, that we just missed something that would help us fit it in. 

Research into the benefits of drug therapy in clinical settings for the treatment of psychosis, schizophrenia, and other mental ailments was in large part responsible for the widespread use of MDMA during its introduction. The empathic properties associated with MDMA, giving users a sense of heightened emotional attachment and connectedness, made its use very intriguing for psychotherapists. 

For reasons of space, I limit myself tv the relation between emotion and material self-interest Similar issues arise for the relation between emotions and impartial motivations. For instance, a wealthy liberal might on impartial grounds prefer to send his children to a public school, but his emotional attachment to the children might induce a preference for a better-quality private education. 

In this section, we have described the scientific method (which is summarized in Figure 1.2) as it might ideally be applied. However, it is important to remember that science does not always progress smoothly and efficiently. Scientists are human. They have prejudices, they misinterpret data, they can become emotionally attached to their theories and thus lose objectivity, and they may play politics. Science is affected by profit motives, budgets, fads, wars, and religious beliefs. 

Fear and anxiety lead to a state of heightened arousal to deal with a predator or a threat to offspring. Aggression can be used to defend territory or achieve dominance over others. Love and emotional attachment promote pair bonding, reproduction, and parental care of offspring. Each of these, at least in animals, is mediated by the very ancient limbic system of the brain. 

Gatekeeper team should consist of a different set of individuals than those actually conducting the product launch/retirement. (Individuals that spend months or years working on a project tend to get emotionally attached to it, making it difficult to view progress objectively.)... 

There appear to be three processes in such symbolization a word (Mod) becomes symbolic of a certain status (delinquent or deviant) objects (hairstyle, clothing) symbolize the word the objects themselves become symbolic of the status (and the emotions attached to the status). The cumulative effect of these three processes as they appeared in the inventory was that the terms Mods and Rockers were torn from any previously neutral contexts (for example, the denotation of different consumer styles) and acquired wholly negative meanings. The identical effect is described by Turner and Surace in their classic study of the Zoot Suit riots and by Rock and myself in tracing how the Edwardian dress style became transformed into the Teddy Boy folk devil. ... 

Yet look how people get mesmerized by and emotionally attached to the world created by Tolkien. Those books use countless World Induction Techniques, and the payoff is widespread devotion. Much of that richness was left out of the films, however, to keep the pacing moving quickly—although it s truly impressive how much was retained. 

Breast milk has good nutritional properties. It has a high protein quality, is hypoallergenic and is very rich in oleic acid, a monounsaturated FA. Long chain FAs aid neurological development. Other advantages are that it promotes emotional attachment between mother and baby, and it can reduce the risk of breast cancer (17a). 

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