Man's emotional capacity — An unexplored and unexploited possibility

Abstract

Man's mental functions have developed unevenly. Sometime during the last millennium the muscle man was superseded by the intelligent man. The human psyche, besides intellectual capacity, includes a basic function that can be called emotional capacity. This function can be studied using the same approach as in the study of intellectual capacity. The two functions are considered to be partly independent of each other. Emotional capacity depends on the individual's genetic emotional make-up (emotional genotype) and how this inherited set of qualities has been conditioned by environmental factors (emotional phenotype). Man's emotional capacity is very little differentiated: emotionally, modern man still functions almost like Stone Age man. Intellectual capacity, however, has undergone enormous development. As emotional capacity to a large extent governs man's behaviour and intellectual capacity is the instrument he uses to reach his goals, the uneven differentiation of the mental functions may have consequences that are unfavourable to the survival of our species.