Understanding Emotion — the first-year Psychology chapter on feeling, in mind, body and the books

Before a viva, your hands go cold. Your heart beats fast. Your mouth feels dry. Nothing has touched your body. Only a feeling has. That is the plain puzzle at the centre of this chapter. How does something in the mind show up in the body?

The NCH syllabus gives this as chapter four of Fundamentals of Psychology in relation to Homoeopathy (HomUG-FPH). Its full title is “Understanding Emotion, its different definitions and expressions in Repertory and Materia Medica”. The sheet lists six topics.

Topic one: what an emotion is

“Scientific study of Emotions: definition of Emotions and its types”.

An emotion is a feeling state, such as fear, joy, anger or sadness. It usually has three sides. There is what you feel inside. There is what happens in your body. And there is what you show or do. The chapter title speaks of “different definitions”. That tells you something useful. Psychologists have defined emotion in more than one way. Learn the definitions your textbook gives, and who gave each.

Then learn the types. Your textbook will say how emotions are grouped.

You met this topic once already. Chapter two began with “definition of Emotions and its types”. This chapter comes back to it in more depth, and calls it a “scientific study”.

Topic two: effects on mind and body

“Effects of Emotions on Mind and Body”.

Go back to the viva. The cold hands and fast heart are effects on the body. A mind that goes blank is an effect on the mind. This topic asks you to describe both kinds of effect.

There is a bridge to Physiology here. First-year Physiology has the autonomic nervous system, which runs the body’s automatic work, in its Central Nervous System chapter. That chapter also lists the limbic system. Its Endocrinology chapter begins with the “importance of PNEI axis”, the link between mind, nerves, hormones and immunity. Those are the body’s side of the story this topic tells from the mind’s side.

Topic three: emotion and sexual behaviour

“Effect of emotions on sexual behaviour”.

This is a normal topic in psychology, and it is studied with the same care as any other. Sexual behaviour is part of human life. Emotions can affect it, as they affect sleep, appetite and work. Learn this topic as your textbook presents it, in plain and respectful terms. As a future physician, you will need to be able to talk about it calmly.

Topic four: the two-way link

“Interrelationship of Emotions on Mind and Body”.

The wording on the sheet is a little unusual. “Interrelationship of Emotions on” is not an everyday phrase. Read it as: how emotions, the mind and the body affect one another, in both directions. Topic two asked what emotion does to mind and body. This topic adds the return path. The state of the body can also change how we feel.

Topics five and six: emotion in the books

• “Representation of Emotions in Materia Medica”
• “Representation of Emotions in Repertory”

Materia Medica describes homoeopathic medicines one by one. Repertory is the index of symptoms that homoeopaths search. A rubric is one heading in that index.

Both books record emotions as well as physical complaints. The first-year Repertory syllabus says so from its own side. Its last chapter has a topic on “Rubrics related to emotions, intellect and memory in Mind chapter of Dr. Kent’s Repertory”. So the Psychology paper and the Repertory paper meet here.

The sheet names no medicine and no rubric in this chapter. Your Materia Medica and Repertory teachers will show you how emotions are written in each book. Keep the psychology words and the homoeopathy words labelled and apart in your answers.

How the chapter sits in the year

This is chapter four. Chapter two gave you the three parts of the mind: thought, feeling and behaviour. Chapter three took behaviour. This chapter takes feeling. Chapter five then takes thinking. Together, those three chapters fill in the frame that chapter two drew.

What to take from it

1. Know more than one definition of emotion, and who gave each.
2. Know the types of emotion your textbook lists.
3. Describe the effects of emotion on mind and body, with an everyday example.
4. Explain the two-way link between emotion and the body.
5. Know that Materia Medica and Repertory both record emotions, and that the Repertory syllabus points to the Mind chapter of Kent’s Repertory.

The sheet gives six topics and no detail. The definitions, the types and the examples come from your textbook and your teachers.

Where to go next on the platform

This piece sits in the first-year Psychology room. “Thought, Feeling and Behaviour — the first-year Psychology chapter on how the mind is organised” draws the frame this chapter fills. “Endocrinology — the first-year Physiology chapter on hormones and the glands that make them” explains the PNEI axis. “Correlation of Anatomy, Physiology and Psychology with Repertory — the last first-year Repertory chapter” is the Repertory side.