So far we have seen research from neuropsychology that illustrates the role which nonconscious processing plays in our mental lives. This is connected to the world around us through the role of the body in processing and cognition. One further aspect of this picture is emotion and affect. This chapter will seek to investigate the emotive aspect in thought and the debates as to its biological or social nature. Without going too far down the well-worn road of the nature/nurture debate, it is fairly uncontroversial to claim a socially constructed aspect to emotional experience and expression, even if one believes it to be at the purely linguistic level. It will be argued that the discourses of different societies help shape different emotions and, after a general examination of the nature of emotion, particular socio-historic examples will be given.

Emotion has generally been an underinvestigated political tool given the rationalistic bent of political theorising. The situation is getting better however following on from the feminist critique of the simplistic reason/emotion dualism. In the context of the present work, emotion is a useful tool on several levels. It takes its place beside other forms of nonconscious processing to further problematise the ideal of reasoned engagement with the world, but it is also a particularly important illustration of the effect of discourse in shaping thought processing at all levels. I am wary, however, of arguing that a society can be indirectly ‘oppressed’ through its prevalent emotional discourse.