Inside Out: A Metaphor about How to Interpret Emotions in our Lives

Rating: 9/10 (14 November 2015)

When a movie besides entertainment, is visually attractive and has a good script, it is definitely a success; when this film is also able to teach us a lesson of life and invites us to reflect, it is a wonder.
THE MOVIE:
Inside out, disguised as an animation film "apparently" for a child audience, tells the story of a girl and what happens with their emotions based on different events in her life. However, although suitable and enjoyable for any audience, in the face of a critical look we can find many metaphors about life itself and a deep insight into how the human emotional system works, and even we can find the influence of today's society, that often invites us to feel constantly happy.
EMOTIONAL SYSTEM:
It seems that humans and most animals come with a set of basic emotions. Some authors divide those in primary emotions (anger, joy, fear and sadness) and secondary (love, surprise, shame and disgust). These emotions are what help us in the task of understanding how we feel about the actions that happen or occur around us, and act accordingly to them. It is a reaction that thinking from an evolutionary point probably helped us (and help us still) to survive, in fact, the emergence of emotions is usually accompanied by somatic responses of the body as change of the blood pressure or release of various hormones by glands. However, presently, there are cases that may pose more of a handicap than a real advantage. One of the most common examples in today's society is "glossophobia" or fear of public speaking, apparently in today's society presents no evolutionary benefit, rather the opposite.
From a physiological point of view, the generation of emotions has been linked to the model of "triune brain" proposed by Paul MacLean. The limbic system, known as the "old mammalian brain" is the origin of emotions and instincts, especially the amygdala, which is considered a primary structure facing the management of emotions as well as the hypothalamus, which is responsible for vegetative changes accompanying emotions, and to finally store the information obtained through emotions in the hippocampus. Moreover, the neocortex, which is part of the most developed mammals, is responsible for more complex actions such as reasoning or abstract thinking. Specifically the prefrontal and frontal lobes are responsible for managing and coordinating such emotional reactions trying to slow down the limbic system.
EMOTIONAL ANALOGY IN THE MOVIE:
In movie we can see some animated characters playing the role of basic emotions such as Happiness, Fear, Sadness, Anger and Disgust. Everything seems to be emotionally right on course for Riley, until her family suddenly decides to move and that emotionally destabilized her. In the following lines I make references to some ideas that are narrated in the movie (if you have not watched it yet, do not keep going!). These ideas have from my perspective a direct association with real life, the personality of the individual as well as their values and emotions.

"That is fear, he is good at making Riley be safe". This thought invites us to think what I said previously, fear kept us alive evolutionarily speaking - The main memories that are mentioned in the film can be viewed as a similarity of those events that have marked and have had a strong influence on our personality and future steps. - "Personality islands are what make Riley Riley" The islands are those values or activities that characterize a person and its personality, we see that as these islands are "disconnecting" in the film, Riley ceases to be herself, turning into a soulless child. - And once the night falls and we start sleeping, all our memories of the day pass to the area of long-term memories, that is, our daily events are becoming part of our experience. - Finally memories that have lost their importance, fade and can not be remembered Those things that once were important, slowly degrade and disappear. - The whole mess starts when Happiness tries to prevent a sad main memory from being introduced in the system of emotions of Riley (this can be associated with a situation where we try to remove feelings like sadness or anger, rather than understand them). - Finally, Happiness realizes that some happy memories had its beginning in a sad situation, what helps her to understand that sadness is as necessary as happiness. Finally and from my opinion, it is sadness from the idea of missing her family which leads her to decide not to run away.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
Following the reflections of the film and keeping the idea of ​​how our brain works and has worked from an evolutionary point of view, emotions help us understand how we feel towards both internal and external events that happen to us. Emotions can be mixed and one can lead to another, it is common to see how an event can trigger one initial emotion, which gradually evolves and turns into another. Society invites us to be single-emotionals and be always happy, but that is not the case and it is probably not even healthy and deprives us of the possibility of understanding how we feel. In fact, authors as Plutchik have begun to introduce these ideas in recent years. But it is also negative to hang on to emotions and do not let them pass. We all have met people who are wrapped with a hatress halo or have an aura of sadness (depressed); and they might even try to make you feel the same. Emotions play an important role in who we are, in our daily path and to be able tot ake us where we are heading. They are a powerful tool, but also extremely dangerous, you have to accept, understand and act according to what you have learned through them.