Emotions

How many emotions are there? Psychologists think there are six primary emotions – happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise, disgust. Are these like the three primary colours in light, where all others can be made of combinations of these six? Do you agree with the idea of “primary emotions”?

I do not agree with the idea of primary emotions entirely. I think that emotions are very subtle and there are many more than just six main emotions. Although it is possible to think of very common emotions and feelings, I think that there are a lot of emotions that you cannot categorize of get from mixing together those six emotions above. Where would you put complicated emotions such as love and hate? You could say that they are a mixture of the above emotions but there is more to it than that I think. Personally, I think that emotions are one of the hardest things to categorize and it is nearly impossible to find the root feelings from each emotion, therefore it is nearly impossible to find the primary emotions. I also feel that it is unnecessary to find the root of each emotion. Emotions are not something I think SHOULD be categorized at all. The whole point of emotions is to go beyond reason and feel something without being logical in most cases, therefore what is the point of trying to turn something specifically un-logical into a logical order and category? It seems a bit hypocritical and useless to me. Emotions in my mind are something beyond reason, that can be both a good thing and a bad thing, but therefore you must just trust in them instead of analyze them as if they were something you could truly control. Emotions are not entirely controllable. You can still feel them (without the use of narcotics or brainwashing) and therefore unpredictable so STOP TRYING TO CHANGE THAT!