Has anyone tried to explain what emotions are involved at a moment when we'd describe ourselves as "feeling empty"?
The neurosciences have mapped a large number of emotions. It has been argued that we have a handful of basic emotions (Paul Ekman and others), and there have been studies of the more complex "social emotions". The metaphor illustrates that "feeling empty" is an embodied experience, and that it is the result of introspection. I would expect that "feeling empty" is a very complex emotion that combines a whole range of emotions.
Some colleagues whom I asked this question face-to-face said that it's a moment when we have no emotions. But I disagree, since feeling empty is an experience that is seriously uncomfortable.
The experience of feeling empty, I think, is caused by a complex emotional state, when we sense a kind of discrepancy between what is the case and what we believe should be the case in our inner world. I'd say that we experience a painful sense of absence without quite knowing what it is that we are missing. It's an emotion that includes elements of pain, frustration, boredom, sadness, hopelessness, and discomfort with the state of our bodies.
What do you think? Please share your views.
Feelings are the manifestations of changes in mood (short-term) and personality (long-term) or even have psychosomatic origins, like when someone is physically ill and may experience bad mood and general dissatisfaction or anhedonia.
Feelings can be termed with general language devices. Feeling empty can be called dissatisfaction, confusion, feeling lost, rejection, uselessness, etc.
But what is important is that in a psychological prognosis or neurological diagnosis, there are primary and secondary criteria for classification of such feelings as symptoms of disorders.
for instance, if such feeling is persistent, chronic and cause problems such as lack of focus on work or routine lifestyle, anhedonia, languor, mood fluctuations, decreased efficiency at work, etc. then there may be a psychological concern for such symptoms.
In addition to routine sessions, talk groups and therapies, medical intervention should be considered if this feeling of emptiness is chronic and a sign of depression. Imaging also can be helpful in terms of taking any therapeutic course of action or decisions regarding medical interventions.
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