Feeling, emotion, and passion are the "stuff" of everyday experience. This guidebook helps the reader understand emotions in a two-step approach. First, common assumptions about emotion are examined in order to arrive at a deeper understanding of current approaches to emotion, especially as these exist in the fields of psychology and counseling. Second, a new framework for working with emotional experience is presented. These ideas are developed in five chapters. Chapter One provides a historical overview of psychological perceptions of emotion. In the past, emotion has been classified as a neurophysiological response, as psychic energy, or as caused by antecedent events, among other theories. In the second chapter, "feeling as a way of knowing" is explored. Distinctions are drawn between feeling and emotion and a diagnostic tool provides readers a method to identify ways they structure experience. Case studies and moral issues are also presented. In the third chapter the reader discovers some of the etymological connections to emotions. This chapter features an emotions vocabulary list, a vocabulary exercise, and strategies on using words. Chapter four presents a six-step strategy for discerning meaning in emotional experiences, while the last chapter describes ways to create a shared understanding of feeling and emotions. (RJM)

Affective Behavior;Attitudes;Cognitive Processes;Cognitive Psychology;Cognitive Structures;Emotional Experience;Emotional Response;Experiential Learning;Foreign Countries;Intuition;Learning Processes;Psychological Patterns;Psychological Studies