The Biology of Emotional Healing

Submitted by tonyplant on October 12, 2006 - 14:06.

I've previously written that moods and emotions are contagious. There is an interesting piece on this notion in the New York Times, Friends for Life: An Emerging Biology of Emotional Healing. (If the NYT bugs you for a log in, then follow the instructions at Bug Me Not.)Research on the link between relationships and physical health has established that people with rich personal networks — who are married, have close family and friends, are active in social and religious groups — recover more quickly from disease and live longer. But now the emerging field of social neuroscience, the study of how people’s brains entrain as they interact, adds a missing piece to that data.It's a light, readable discussion that mentions mirror neurons as an explanation for emotional contagion, which expresses "the tendency of one person to catch the feelings of another, particularly if strongly expressed".

There's also a discussion of Cacioppo's work. He makes that interesting argument that the

emotional status of our main relationships has a significant impact on our overall pattern of cardiovascular and neuroendocrine activity. This radically expands the scope of biology and neuroscience from focusing on a single body or brain to looking at the interplay between two at a time. In short, my hostility bumps up your blood pressure, your nurturing love lowers mine. Potentially, we are each other’s biological enemies or allies.

This is a fascinating way of understanding all of our relationships and particularly the very strong relationship between carers and those for whom they care.

Copyright 2006, Tony Plant Happystance Project

social network | resilience | mirror neurons | happiness | emotional contagion | community | Cacioppo