why do we have emotions? emotions can help us survive & thrive: “in the wilderness in which the human race developed its current genetic characteristics, individuals who had the capacity to respond to dangerous or otherwise significant circumstances with an adequate set of emotions, and acted accordingly, had a better chance to survive, to have children, and to raise them than indiv- iduals who were deficient in that respect” Gut, E. Productive & unproductive depression. London: Routledge, 1989

‘body-mind as radar’ model the body-mind is like a radar & rapid response system constantly assessing whether the outer & inner environments are favourable or unfavourable emotions (like a constant wash of changing colours) are the ‘readings’ from this radar & rapid response system the emotional radar system is ‘quick & dirty’ triggering rapid responses that may be accurate, adaptive & possibly life-saving or inaccurate & unhelpful