Topics Happiness

Question Why is it that most people feel better after talking about their problems?

Accepted:
October 8, 2009

Comments

It doesn't take much science-fiction imagination to conceive of creatures -- Klingons, or whatever! -- who work differently. When their equanimity is disturbed, e.g. by relationships falling apart, then they naturally recover their emotional balance after a while, so long as they don't keep dwelling on things. Rather as we heal broken skin so long as we don't keep picking at the scabs, so for our Klingons talking about their problems is like picking at scabs. For them, it is better to "let nature take its course" and for their emotional system to recalibrate itself to the new situation without paying too much conscious attention to the processes. They don't suffer from effects of "repressing" bad experiences, etc.: in fact they function better if they do "repress".
Now, if we are very different from our imagined Klingons (as modern therapeutic "it's good to talk" theories suppose we are), then that's an empirical fact about us. And if it is a contingent empirical matter, as it seems to be, then arm-chair
philosophers aren't really the people to explain it. Rather, it's up to empirical psychological theory to explore what it is about our cognitive/emotional wiring and programming that makes us feel better if we talk about our problems.

Question Why is it that most people feel better after talking about their problems? Accepted:October 8, 2009

Question Why is it that most people feel better after talking about their problems?

Accepted:
October 8, 2009