Primary/Secondary Emotions
I kinda forgot about the concept of primary and secondary emotions when I made my color theory comparison earlier, and that doesn’t actually line up within the analogy, but it worked so well in that instance, so I’d hate to change it now. Or, more realistically, I just don’t want to do the work to change it. Honestly though, artists came up with their concept of primary and secondary colors way before the word psychology was even documented, so let’s blame whoever didn’t know their art history for making it confusing.
Just don’t blame me.
Primary Emotion
Departing from our color correlation, primary emotions are not just the universal emotions. Chances are your primary emotion is one of the universal emotions, however that doesn’t mean that if you are feeling a universal emotion it is necessarily your primary emotion. Think: all apples are fruit, but not all fruit are apples.
Primary emotions are not synonymous with universal emotions.
I wonder how many times I can say the words “primary emotion” before actually explaining what it is. I could keep telling you all the things it isn’t and see if you eventually figure it out on your own. Primary emotions are usually not your initial, short term reaction to an event. Primary emotions are typically not influenced by temporary conditions, such as the weather or the status of your yeast infection. Primary emotions are generally not small appliances used for increasing the warmth and crispiness of bread. Does that clear things up for you? I might’ve confused myself too, so I’ll give you a pass if you’re have trouble. But just this one time. Unless I forget that I already gave you your one pass and accidentally give you another. I’m not keeping track of your passes.
Lets work backwards from the information I did manage to give you. Rather than being the intense, impulsive feelings that arise in direct response to a stimulus, like an encounter or a thought, the primary emotion is deeply rooted to a much broader concept that can be triggered by any number of individual events. It’s like a permeating theme of your personality.
A primary emotion is also pretty fixed, regardless of your current mood. It is tied to an overarching idea that exists no matter how much sleep you got the night before, how intense your allergies are acting up, or how much poop is in your underwear because you shouldn’t have trusted a fart after eating six roast beef sandwiches from Arby’s.
The one way primary emotions are similar to all emotions is that they are immaterial, and therefore can not act as a physical toaster.
Secondary Emotion
Secondary emotions are the opposite.
I think an example might help.
Meagan’s boyfriend came home from work one day in a wonderful mood. He had been working on a really interesting case that has been both challenging and educational, and this day he got to engage in a riveting procedure he hadn’t done before. He went on to energetically explain the details to Meagan while she sat watching a true crime miniseries. The first thing she noticed was how annoyed she was that he kept interrupting her show, and that grew into anger when she realized he hadn’t even asked about her day. That quickly gave way to a feeling of jealousy, since the only thing she had to talk about was the six episodes of the show she was currently distracted from. She resented that he had somewhere to be everyday and got so much fulfillment out of the work he was doing, while she struggled to fill her time with chores and the occasional gig. The reminder of her current state of affairs left her vulnerable to a wave of hopelessness about ever making her life feel meaningful, which stemmed from a deeper sadness and regret about the choices she had made throughout her life. All of this can be traced to her fear of failure, however, which has been with her for as long as she can remember, and was the driving force for most of her thoughts, feelings, and actions.
Secondary emotions are the feelings that are communicated to others by our reactions. The further these deviate from our primary emotion, the greater chance for emotional suffering. That’s where we want to live.