Emotion modelling towards affective pathogenesis.
Objective: There is a need in psychiatry for models that integrate pathological states with normal systems. The interaction of arousal and emotion is the focus of an exploration of affective pathogenesis. Method: Given that the explicit causes of affective disorder remain nascent, methods of linking emotion and disorder are evaluated. Results: A network model of emotional families is presented, in which emotions exist as quantal gradients. Morbid emotional states are seen as the activation of distal emotion sites. The phenomenology of affective disorders is described with reference to this model. Recourse is made to non-linear dynamic theory. Conclusions: Metaphoric emotion models have face validity and may prove a useful heuristic.
Bas
James Le
JL
Director, Community Mental Health, Peninsula Health, Davey St Clinic, Frankston, and Adjunct Senior Lecturer, School of Psychology, Psychiatry and Psychological Medicine, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia.