Chapter Four - On Emotion

And so I must set forth without viaticum; must climb each step of the staircase “against my heart,” as the saying is, climbing in opposition to my heart’s desire, which was to return to my mother, since she had not, by kissing me, given my heart leave to accompany me. That hateful staircase, up which I always went so sadly, gave out a smell of varnish which had, as it were, absorbed and crystallised the special quality of sorrow that I felt each evening, and made it perhaps even crueller to my sensibility because, when it assumed this olfactory guise, my intellect was powerless to resist it.

Marcel Proust, Swann’s Way

 

 

Both Proust and psychoanalysts are deeply interested in emotions. Proust strived to regain feelings lost over time. Psychoanalysts strive to understand how emotions contribute to making us who we are. So what are emotions? Think of emotions as guides to life. Something we are born with and refined as we grow and experience the slings and arrows -- and joys of life. On the one hand, emotions such as fear, anger, lust, and care provide dispositions for action so we don't have to think about what to do. We just act. If something frightens us the fear system prepares us to flee or to stay and fight. If we feel thwarted the anger system prepares us to lash out. On the other hand, emotions also tell us something about what is happening to us. They tell us if something is good or bad. Emotions tell us how we feel about things. For example, if I am happy seeing the roses blooming in my garden, I am moved to go out and smell them. I am irritated when I see the rabbit nibbling on the new shoots and I am moved to go shoo him away. Feelings and action go hand in hand. With that said, I hope this chapter helps you understand more of Proust's search for lost time and lost emotions.