CuppaGemma

Can emotions pretend they are molecules?

It could be a neat riff to understand our feelings in terms of organic chemistry and as a table of elements. We could name, identify  and classify them. The periodic table of raw materials that comprises the gamut of how people feel.

Could we be so granular as to break out sections of emotions into elements and then build them up into larger and more complex structures?

Melancholy would have to be complex and have several metals. But what aspect of emotion could be like the noble gases? Happiness needs to fluoresce somehow.

If only it were that simple. A mixture of thoughts, new ideas can always be re-separated out- that’s exciting in the potential for recombination, a compound is a permanent commitment. And a super saturated solution- well maybe the affection ought not be that sweet?

But feelings, like words are stubborn and our wetlab studies will not identify nor explain them all away. That doesn’t stop us though from using the ideas in our language.

What does “with mixed emotion” really mean?

That phrase has always conjured up an image of being in Ingersoll Hall with something gurgling back from the glassware late in the afternoon. An undeniable precipitate when all the Prof wants to see is a clear solution. As though an aspect of feeling is sludgy and taints what is supposed to be the expected thought.