I can empathize to an extent—my fiance left me about two months ago (two months ago yesterday actually, now that I check). I still love her, and I’m not even close to getting over her. I don’t think I’m even close to wanting to get over her. And when I have talked to her since it happened, I’ve said things that I wish I hadn’t said, upon reflection. I know exactly what you mean about having no control of what you say around her.
But, with that being said...
Well, I certainly can’t speak for the common wisdom of the community, but speaking for myself, I think it’s important to remember that emotion and rationality aren’t necessarily opposed—in fact, I think that’s one of the most important things I’ve learned from LW: emotion is orthogonal to rationality. I think of the love I have for my ex-fiance, and, well...I approve of it. It can’t be really be justified in any way (and it’s hard to even imagine what it would mean for an emotion to be justified, except by other emotions), but it’s there, and I’m happy that it is. As Eliezer put it, there’s no truth that destroys my love.
Of course, emotions can be irrational—certainly one has to strive for reflective equilibrium, searching for emotions that conflict with one another and deciding which ones to endorse. And it seems like you don’t particularly endorse the emotions that you feel around this person (I’ll just add that for myself, being in love has never felt like another persons values were superseding my own—rather it felt like they were being elevated to being on par with my own. Suddenly this other person’s happiness was just as important to me as my own—usually not more important, though). But I guess my point is that there’s nothing inherently irrational about valuing someone else over yourself, even if it might be irrational for you.
In short them, yes. I long term, some people would benefit from awareness-increasing techniques, such as meditation or therapy, while other people would benefit from changing their behavior.
I can empathize to an extent—my fiance left me about two months ago (two months ago yesterday actually, now that I check). I still love her, and I’m not even close to getting over her. I don’t think I’m even close to wanting to get over her. And when I have talked to her since it happened, I’ve said things that I wish I hadn’t said, upon reflection. I know exactly what you mean about having no control of what you say around her.
But, with that being said...
Well, I certainly can’t speak for the common wisdom of the community, but speaking for myself, I think it’s important to remember that emotion and rationality aren’t necessarily opposed—in fact, I think that’s one of the most important things I’ve learned from LW: emotion is orthogonal to rationality. I think of the love I have for my ex-fiance, and, well...I approve of it. It can’t be really be justified in any way (and it’s hard to even imagine what it would mean for an emotion to be justified, except by other emotions), but it’s there, and I’m happy that it is. As Eliezer put it, there’s no truth that destroys my love.
Of course, emotions can be irrational—certainly one has to strive for reflective equilibrium, searching for emotions that conflict with one another and deciding which ones to endorse. And it seems like you don’t particularly endorse the emotions that you feel around this person (I’ll just add that for myself, being in love has never felt like another persons values were superseding my own—rather it felt like they were being elevated to being on par with my own. Suddenly this other person’s happiness was just as important to me as my own—usually not more important, though). But I guess my point is that there’s nothing inherently irrational about valuing someone else over yourself, even if it might be irrational for you.
Mostly I resent the fact that my mind becomes completely clouded, like I’m on some drug.
You are.
I don’t think naturally producing a hormone counts as being on drugs. If it did, that would mean that everyone is on tons of drugs all of the time.
Some people seem to get higher dose of internally produced drugs than others.
I suppose that’s what they call “being more emotional”?
Probably one of those words that could mean many things:
a) a higher dose of hormones;
b) greater awareness of your internal state; or
c) an exaggerated reaction to the same dose of hormones.
Measuring the difference between those three is hardly trivial, though. Can’t they be considered the same for all practical purposes?
In short them, yes. I long term, some people would benefit from awareness-increasing techniques, such as meditation or therapy, while other people would benefit from changing their behavior.