Given their evolutionary heritage and daily currency, there is little wonder that emotions have preoccupied humankind throughout recorded history, and there is little doubt that emotions are both biologically rooted and culturally molded. Emotions represent in part a primitive past, the bubbling influences of a reptilian heritage. Indeed, the classic assumption is that emotion wreaks havoc on human rationality, that dispassionate analysis optimizes decision-making. Accordingly, the emphasis in our society has been on cognition and rationality and on ways of diminishing the influence of subjectivity and emotion in decision-making and behavior. The notion that an individual's emotions were a disruptive force in rational thought, adaptive action, and a fulfilling life also has been shown to be a gross oversimplification.
Emotions are much more than reptilian reflexes.
Although the obstacles of a civilized world still occasionally call forth blind rages, emotions are increasingly recognized for the critical role they play in higher forms of human experience. Elliot was a businessman who developed a brain tumor that damaged his prefrontal cortex. He began behaving irrationally following the damage to the prefrontal cortex by the brain tumor and the subsequent surgery. Testing of Elliot revealed that his intelligence, attention, and memory were unaffected. Elliot had no emotional guidance based on a lifetime of accumulated experiences to help him select among alternatives in his life.