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Is it possible?

Mr. Sherlock Holmes

Consulting Detective
Joined
Aug 10, 2010
Messages
1,450
MBTI Type
JiNe
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5W4
I can be very emotional but still retain for at least the most part my sense of logic, and if I can't, I will usually retreat.
 

Andy

Supreme High Commander
Joined
Nov 16, 2009
Messages
1,211
MBTI Type
INTJ
Enneagram
5w6
I think intense emotions would tend to get in the way of dispassionate, logical thought. I tend to find that the first thing that needs to be done with intense emotions is squash them flat so they don't get in the way of my thinking.
 

Oaky

Travelling mind
Joined
Jan 15, 2009
Messages
6,180
MBTI Type
INTJ
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5w6
Instinctual Variant
sp/so
There is the case where the conclusion brought about by emotional judging may be parallel with the conclusion brought about by thinking in the most logical and rational manner. This case would allow the conclusions of the person to be logical as well as emotional by objective standards.
Another case would be that the values of the person lie in rational thinking so to be driven to rationalise by one's own subjective values would be a case where feeling drives someone to become logical. However, I'm not sure if it counts as an emotional response.
 

Lily flower

New member
Joined
Jun 28, 2010
Messages
930
MBTI Type
INFJ
Enneagram
2
I think that you could be intensely emotional and do something like a logic puzzle well.

However, being intensely emotional tends to get in the way of making good relationship decisions. On the other hand, having no emotions tends to ruin good relationships as well.
 

Mole

Permabanned
Joined
Mar 20, 2008
Messages
20,284
Emotion, Obedience and Logic

If we are able to listen to an emotion, it rises and falls naturally.

And an emotion has a life of its own. It's born, it lives and dies unless we fail to listen, unless we fail to attend. Then the emotion becomes strident, insistent, overbearing and finally frustrated and angry.

So many of us are trained from birth to over-ride our emotion, first in the interests of obedience, and then in the interests of logic.

And unfortunately that kind of logic has a vested interest in obedience, without being seen to command. That kind of logic is the kind of logic you have when you are not having any logic.

Watch here, watch every thread, and see emotion cut off, stifled, ridiculed in the interests of a phoney logic. How many times have you been told by the commanding voice here, to be logical. Hey, they say, if we are all logical together, everything will work out. But it never seems to happen.

Emotion rises naturally within us and all we need to do is listen.
 

Moiety

New member
Joined
Aug 3, 2008
Messages
5,996
MBTI Type
ISFJ
There is the case where the conclusion brought about by emotional judging may be parallel with the conclusion brought about by thinking in the most logical and rational manner. This case would allow the conclusions of the person to be logical as well as emotional by objective standards.
Another case would be that the values of the person lie in rational thinking so to be driven to rationalise by one's own subjective values would be a case where feeling drives someone to become logical. However, I'm not sure if it counts as an emotional response.

Yeah.

I don't know about emotional, but a proficient Feeler will come to logical conclusions in a holistic way sometimes. I've taken decisions based on feelings i've had, and only afterwards did I explain to myself logically why I did it, and I KNEW why, even though at the time of the decision it was quick as lightning.
 
T

ThatGirl

Guest
I'd consider myself to be an Intensely emotional person, but I am not illogical. I don't think the trick is stopping or ignoring emotion, it is knowing how to separate it. Live in duality of two truths, and then to pick and chose which truth is the more important or relative to the situation.

Ive noticed with most people it is just one or the other. I think this leads to being misrepresented when people are looking for you to take consistent and clear stances on things. Which is then misinterpreted as illogical. While I view the extreme of either stance to be illogical.
 

Saslou

New member
Joined
Feb 1, 2009
Messages
4,910
MBTI Type
ESFJ
I do have moments of being emotional and illogical but i bounce back pretty quick.

I get a little more worried though when i am being logical/rational when i should be emotional over whats being said. I suppose though i am just distancing my feelings and focusing on the issue at hand and consoling the other person, whilst hopefully giving good advice if it's required and if not, just a shoulder.
 

mochajava

New member
Joined
Jul 28, 2010
Messages
475
MBTI Type
INFJ
Yeah.

I don't know about emotional, but a proficient Feeler will come to logical conclusions in a holistic way sometimes. I've taken decisions based on feelings i've had, and only afterwards did I explain to myself logically why I did it, and I KNEW why, even though at the time of the decision it was quick as lightning.

Exactly. Moiety has it right. Emotion and logic can work together. And, where does intuition figure into this? That's my secret weapon and what I follow the most. It's how I know I'll be happy with a decision (if my intuition agrees). But, that being said, sometimes you have to let your emotions do their thing, let logic do its thing, then let your insight bubble up from your deeps. Now those are good decisions! They seem right, they feel right, you can/are willing to back them up, and sometimes the logic arrives several months later (this is how I work).
 

highlander

Administrator
Staff member
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Dec 23, 2009
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26,562
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INTJ
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6w5
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sx/sp
I'd consider myself to be an Intensely emotional person, but I am not illogical. I don't think the trick is stopping or ignoring emotion, it is knowing how to separate it. Live in duality of two truths, and then to pick and chose which truth is the more important or relative to the situation.

Ive noticed with most people it is just one or the other. I think this leads to being misrepresented when people are looking for you to take consistent and clear stances on things. Which is then misinterpreted as illogical. While I view the extreme of either stance to be illogical.

Without our emotions, we become like a mummy. I don't believe stifling them is good or healthy. They are incredibly important. They give us our drive, our passion, motivate us to act, help us realize when we should perhaps be cautious, etc.

Exactly. Moiety has it right. Emotion and logic can work together. And, where does intuition figure into this? That's my secret weapon and what I follow the most. It's how I know I'll be happy with a decision (if my intuition agrees). But, that being said, sometimes you have to let your emotions do their thing, let logic do its thing, then let your insight bubble up from your deeps. Now those are good decisions! They seem right, they feel right, you can/are willing to back them up, and sometimes the logic arrives several months later (this is how I work).

Yes!!!
 

slowriot

He who laughs
Joined
Dec 1, 2008
Messages
1,314
Enneagram
5w4
Well first off, emotions and feelings are not the same, atleast from a Jungian view.

From Cambridge dictionary of Psychology

emotion
n. A transient, neurophysiological response to
a stimulus that excites a coordinated system
of bodily and mental responses that inform
us about our relationship to the stimulus
and prepare us to deal with it in some way.

So emotions is a byproduct of stimulus/cognition.

Cognition
n. 1. A general term for all forms of mental
processes including conscious ones such as
perception, thought, and memory, as well as
nonconscious processes such as grammatical
construction, parsing of sensory data into
percepts, and the neural control of physiological
processes. 2. A particular thought.

So no you cant be emotional and logical at the same time. But you can shift between them at the speed of light and shift back again. Usually emotions are also associated with change in physical energy levels and indulging too long in these can have a negative effect on you. A negative loop is this: external changes in enviroment --> thoughts/cognitions --> emotional response --> change in physical energy levels --> Action --> external change in enviroment, and so on. A simplistic example: The A grade student that gets a C that thinks "I shouldnt get a C" --> Irritation, annoyance etc --> lower energy level --> Cant study as long because of lower energy levels --> Gets behind others in the class, and the loop goes on.

Normal people use a great deal of both emotions and logical deductions or a broader word, cognitions when deciding what to do in a certain situation. And it happens at the speed of light. You dont neccesarily have to associate an "action" before later in a "loop". You could go: external influence --> cognitions --> emotional reaction --> physical manifestation --> cognition --> emotional response --> physical manifestation --> action --> change in external behavior.
 

BlueScreen

Fail 2.0
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Nov 8, 2008
Messages
2,668
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YMCA
To be intensely emotional without being illogical?

Maybe. Probably the most illogical thing you can do once you recognise and are absorbed in the emotional side is ignore it completely and pretend that it is not part of the system. It fails in the sense that you are aware of information which obviously meant enough to cause a reaction but you now ignore, and it fails in the sense that you haven't looked into what might influence your perception at the time. A lot of people make "logical" decisions believing they have detached, when the emotion has just driven them to ignore whatever part feels uncomfortable to them. You can actually end up more logical by embracing it and understanding it, and it is easiest to study while it is still there.

On the other hand logic is not innately human. It is an invented form of thinking. So there is probably less chance that a human will be instinctively using it at their rawest unless they detach. On one level you need to be standing in the fire, and at another level you need to be watching yourself standing in the fire, detached from it all.
 

Aleksei

Yeah, I can fly.
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ENTJ
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7w6
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sx/sp
To be intensely emotional without being illogical?
You'd have to be very good at compartmentalizing. You have to restrain the pull of emotions, in order to remain objective.

But it is possible to be very pissed off, or grief-stricken or what have you, and still be logical.
 

erm

Permabanned
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Jun 19, 2007
Messages
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Oh yes, many emotions greatly assist with logical and critical thought.

The most obvious are passions for logical thought and truth. Very powerful, often overwhelming emotions that often cause one to see past their own bias and ignorance. Boredom and curiosity are two other ones that have similar effects, but are much less potent.

Positive and peaceful emotions have been shown to cause better performance on logical tests, such as maths, supposedly by providing clarity of thought. Tiredness (mental fatigue) and depression are examples of emotions that do the opposite.

Arousing emotions (e.g. excitement) boost creativity, which is an important part of synthetical thought, so I guess that might count to. Though generally people mean analytical thought when they say logical thought.
 

Condor

New member
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Aug 28, 2008
Messages
109
MBTI Type
ISTJ
To be intensely emotional without being illogical?

I'm sure it's possible. As to making decisions based on emotions (intense or otherwise) I'm not sure. I can't see how a logical decision - which IMO requires a reasoned analysis of the situation at hand - can be made based on emotions. Emotions change, logical reasoning doesn't. A decision based on emotions may seem good at the time, yet not so in the future. I would imagine it would also depend on the importance (and permance) of the decision.
 

Stanton Moore

morose bourgeoisie
Joined
Mar 4, 2009
Messages
3,900
MBTI Type
INFP
So many of us are trained from birth to over-ride our emotion, first in the interests of obedience, and then in the interests of logic.

And unfortunately that kind of logic has a vested interest in obedience, without being seen to command. That kind of logic is the kind of logic you have when you are not having any logic.

Watch here, watch every thread, and see emotion cut off, stifled, ridiculed in the interests of a phoney logic. How many times have you been told by the commanding voice here, to be logical. Hey, they say, if we are all logical together, everything will work out. But it never seems to happen.
QUOTE]

Agreed.
 

Onceajoan

New member
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Apr 22, 2010
Messages
239
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INFJ
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1w2
You'd have to be very good at compartmentalizing. You have to restrain the pull of emotions, in order to remain objective.

But it is possible to be very pissed off, or grief-stricken or what have you, and still be logical.

This ^.

But I also think it depends on the context in which the emotional intensity is expressed, as well as the nature of the emotional intensity.
 
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