Quote:
Originally posted by nash
I know this isn't the same thing, but I hate it when researchers spend money to confirm the obvious. Sorry about the tangent.
Anyways, I always thought it was obvious (the first word that came to mind was "nobrainer" but I didn't want to seem like I was trying to pun) that "heartbreak" and other related emotions/feelings caused real physical pain. That sick punched-in-the-gut feeling is for real. I agree with those who said that they would rather have pain caused by physical stimuli, since I have also found it to be a good distraction from my thoughts. I have scabs from my knuckles right now from scraping them against a brick wall a few days ago when I was trying to get my mind off something. =(
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I sort of agree with you but would like to point out one thing. The reason why it's important to researchers that the pain centre is activated when a person feels emotional pain has a lot to do with understanding the whole human brain, as opposed to understanding only psychology. (however both sciences are affected by these findings) Slowly, bit by bit scientists are building a map of the human brain and tracing the function of the brain back to the map. In order to understand brain disorders and general brain health they need to understand how it works. This little finding is only one small piece of the puzzle.
You can interpolate further conclusions from the findings as a result. Things like how emotional abuse can cause people to willingly suffer large amounts of physical discomfort or pain. (to aviod further abuse), or how people with a tumour can see smell and taste things that don't exist.
In short and sweet terms ... if psychology didn't end up feeling like common sense it wouldn't be psychology would it? after all its the science of how we think, feel, and behave.
Skippy