My main point would be that someone who is without identity would be free to think and remember anything at all without becoming passionately involved/moved. No longer could they be tortured or titillated by memory.
And not that you were suggesting this, but they would have no need to avoid certain thoughts/memories in an attempt to avoid the accompanying emotional turmoil. Nor would they need to avoid certain physical sensations (often a smell of something can bring back a memory, just like photographs can). Nor would they be engaged in evoking thoughts/memories in order to evoke the thrill of the accompanying emotions they trigger.
Existence of feeling-being places boundaries and exerts control on what one can and can’t think about, or what one can or can’t do. Look at all the discussion of this “wall of fear” thing and in the end it turns out to be a big nothing-burger. It was entirely safe to proceed further the entire time and its presence seemingly only served to delay or distort any comprehension of that fact.
If one were to not question the role that feelings are playing in this situation, their only option would be to control what they remember, and avoid thinking about particular memories. Or perhaps attempt to end thinking altogether.
I think just like sensory-stimuli can evoke certain feelings, so too can thoughts. There seems to be a feedback loop where a thought can trigger a feeling just like a feeling can trigger thinking. I think we sometimes experience this as “spiraling.”
When it comes to the discussion on LeDeoux, I think the most important detail that Richard and Peter explored is that when it comes to sensory-perception, the affective faculty gets a look-in on it first before the more developed neo-cortex/thinking faculty (about 20ms later) This mean that before one is even making a considered appraisal of the situation, an instinctual-affective response has already occurred and is flooding the brain and body with hormones. It can be overpowering and frequently tends to be an overreaction that doesn’t match the circumstances.
The discussion on this topic on the Actual Freedom page is fascinating but right now I’m having trouble accessing the website. I’m impressed by Peter’s ability to write about the topic - it’s a dense read but very coherent. I pulled an AI summary of LeDoux on this topic included below:
Joseph LeDoux’s research on the “emotional brain” describes two distinct neural pathways for processing threats, neither of which is literally a “broadband connection”
. The phrase is a metaphor to illustrate the difference between the rapid, unconscious “low road” and the slower, more deliberate “high road” by which sensory information reaches the brain’s emotional center, the amygdala.
The fast “low road”
- Pathway: This is a quick, subcortical route that sends sensory information directly from the thalamus—the brain’s primary sensory relay center—to the amygdala.
- Function: It allows for a rapid, automatic, and largely unconscious emotional response to a potential threat before the conscious brain has fully processed what is happening. For example, jumping back from a perceived snake on a path before you realize it’s just a stick.
The slower “high road”
- Pathway: This cortical pathway is longer and more complex. It routes sensory information from the thalamus to the sensory cortex for detailed analysis before it is sent to the amygdala.
- Function: This allows for a more conscious, thoughtful, and accurate assessment of the stimulus. It can override or contextualize the initial reaction from the low road—for instance, allowing you to calm down once you realize the stick is not a snake.
The amygdala as the “relay center”
In LeDoux’s model, the amygdala acts as the central hub for processing and assigning emotional significance to sensory inputs.
- The lateral nucleus of the amygdala is the main sensory input area where the low road and high road converge.
- The amygdala’s outputs then trigger the body’s defensive reactions, such as the “fight-or-flight” response, through projections to areas like the hypothalamus and brainstem.
LeDoux’s work on this dual-pathway system has been fundamental to understanding how the brain processes fear and emotion, and how these different neural circuits contribute to anxiety disorders
