Chapter 1 Critical Introduction to Reversal Theory

Abstract

This chapter introduces reversal theory. Reversal theory suggests that motivational states come in mutually exclusive pairs and that each member of a pair has an internal stability and coherence, which ensures that it will resist artificial attempts to displace it. Fear and horror are emotions proper to one motivational state where they constitute very unpleasant experiences, but they may be pleasurable when experienced in the opposite state. Reversal theory is an intriguing combination of system and personal experience and of structure and phenomenology. It offers a deterministic account of inner experience. The object of investigation in reversal theory—the subject matter of the theory—is the inner and unique world of consciousness. Structural phenomenology is the theoretical system employed by reversal theory to account for the experience of particular behaviors. As a result, the reversal theory may be described as an approach, which treats personal experience as a central part of psychology and that reversal theory seeks principles by which personal experience is governed. Thus, reversal theory differs from classical phenomenology by assuming that experience is itself determined and can be the object of scientific investigation and explanation.