The Physics of Emotion(ing)
Starts With You
The PoE Model
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The Atomic Emotion(ing) Elements, are also referred to in the PoE as The 9 Basic Emotions. They are the building blocks and Dr. Lukens has determined them to be: Fear, Anger, Sadness, Disgust, Guilt, Shame, and Interest, Desire, and Joy.
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Emotional responses follow a predictable course, going from the initial triggering or activation stage, to supporting goal-oriented actions as we ‘respond’ appropriately to the meaning involved,, and then finally ending or “completing” as we like to say, when you’ve achieved the goal or genuinely ‘relinquished’ it fully, and that terminates or closes the response ‘circuit.’ For example, You don’t stay ‘curious’ once your interest has been satisfied, and you don’t stay frightened once you’re fully safe
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Ambivalence means mixed emotions, or multiple goals that are producing a set of distinct emotioning circuits in a single context. For example, I consider going out to a restaurant with friends in pursuit of a good meal and a good time, but I may have some fear regarding the approval of my friends, or there could be some concern about being tempted to go off my diet, etc., and so I have the ‘desire’ to go, and the ‘fear-based’ reluctance to go at the same time. Or, consider how most humans respond to the prospect of deeper emotional intimacy -- something draws us to it (our interest and our desires) but something also produces some reluctance or hesitation (our fear of ‘rejection’ or being hurt, or being criticized, for example), and so we do the ‘ambivalence dance’ of taking two steps forward, then two or three steps backward, followed by one and a half steps forward, followed by a half step back, and so on.
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Dr. Lukens does not define Love as an “emotion”. He has redefined it to be CBI -- short for Committed Benevolent Interest. There is an emotion at the center of it,
Interest, and so love is defined as a special form of Interest. This redefinition coupled with an understanding of the Biophilosophical roots of love help us understand where a person’s ground of being lies on the Love-Contempt Continuum. This is ‘where you come from’ before you perceive anything in the world. Your orientation to be more loving than contemptuous, or vice versa, represents your fundamental operating principle in action. Your ground of being is the ‘stance’ in relation to the world in general, or the specific ‘things’ of the world as you ‘get ready’ to relate to them and experience them.
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Completion is simply the closing of an emotioning circuit. Like the idea of ‘closure’ from Gestalt theory, once you reach the ‘end point’ of your meaningful goals you ‘get complete’ and experience the end of the drive and the other motivational forces including thoughts and feelings as they were involved in the pursuit of the goal. You stop looking once you find, and you stop running once you’re safe, and you stop being angry when the fight is officially over, and you stop being guilty when the ‘breach’ of the love-based promise has been repaired, and so on.
Why Do You Do What You Do?
Human Motivation
Emotions are why you do what you do. As living systems we always do what we are built to do. At the same time, as observers of our own experience and reporters on the meaningful events of our lives, we almost never ‘say’ what is actually so. Actions may or may not speak louder than words, but words are so often used to disclaim action, to hide or obscure our meanings and our motives, rather than acknowledge and reveal them.
Who is Dr. Lukens?
Dr. Lukens is a clinical psychologist, author, emotions theorist, and expert in human motivation. He is the developer of the Phyisics of Emotioning Theory and the CICT modality, and has spent the last few years of his career advocating for love, understanding, and genuine curiosity when approaching the study of human behavior.
Love Defined As C.B.I.
What Is Love?
For years Dr. Lukens pondered, what is love? A companion emotion? A “chameleon” feeling? He had come to the conclusion that love was all over the emotional map and was definitely NOT one of the basic emotions. For years he pondered, and then he found it. . .
How Do We “Process” Emotions?
Deconstruction Of Ambivalence
We are often told that processing our emotions is healthy for us, but we aren’t necessarily taught effective ways to truly accomplish this. The Deconstruction of Ambivalence is the unique component of the CICT Modality that sets it apart from other methods of self-understanding and emotional release. It is the process of teasing out the strands of each of the 9 Basic Emotions. This categorization process of your emotional experience prepares you for core issue completion work.
How Do We Reconcile Emotional Pain & Suffering?
The Fucket Bucket
Painful and unwanted life experiences can be boiled down to two categories: Self-Esteem and Grief/Loss. It’s not meant to be reductionistic of the complexity and pain that life brings, rather it’s meant to help you start your journey to completion by giving you a categorization process. These categories form two funnels that empty into what Dr. Lukens calls the Fucket Bucket. When the bucket gets full it leads to acting out in all its forms.
The Physics Of Emotion(ing) Volume 1
The Physics of Emotion(ing) is a 3-Volume Series that lays out Dr. Lukens theoretical framework for understanding human motivation and experience. Volume 1 is available now!
How Do We Change The World?
The Love-Contempt Continuum
Applying the concept of love and contempt to humanity in general, we can picture the human race divided on this love-contempt dimension along a continuum. Contempt exists as the polar opposite of love, as the negation of love. The more love you have for someone, the more you want them to succeed in their lives. To make the world more loving, we have to shift the Love-Contempt Continuum. This requires a process of subtracting contempt first, to recalibrate, before we can add love into the mix.
The Physics of Emotion(ing) As A System
What does that mean? It means we have a unique understanding of human behavior that you can incorporate into every aspect of your life.
Other models of studying human behavior look at it like this.
The PoE Model looks at it like this.
Who Are We Behind Our Defenses?
Emotional Resistance
Are you trapped behind your defenses? Several people have discovered the hidden truism that what you really want lies on the other side of your fear. It might be more accurate to say, “what you want, lies on the other side of your defensive avoidance”. Our defense operates like “a fence” that is designed to keep the threat on the other side of “us.” But we are now — much later in life — “stuck” on this side of us and this side of the world. Defenses lock the bad guys out, but at the same time, they lock us in.