There Is A Sequence Of Events In

The Mechanism Of Primary Emotions Does Not Describe The Full Range Of Emotional Behaviors. They Are, To Be Sure, The Basic Mechanism. However, I Believe That In Terms Of An Individual's Development They Are Followed By Mechanisms Of Secondary Emotions, Which Occur Once We Begin Experiencing Feelings And Forming Systematic Connections Between Categories Of Objects And Situations, On The One Hand, And Primary Emotions, On The Other.

When You Deal With Something Like Compassion For Physical Pain, Which We Know Is Very, Very Old In Evolution - We Can Find Evidence For It In Nonhuman Species - The Brain Processes It At A Faster Speed. Compassion For Mental Pain Took Many Seconds Longer.

A Self That Is Very Robust, That Has Many, Many Levels Of Organization, From Simple To Complex, And That Functions As A Sort Of Witness To What Is Going On In Our Organisms.

People Who Are Great Thinkers, In Science Or In Art, People Who Are Great Performers, Have To Have That Kind Of Capacity. Without That Kind Of Capacity, It's Extremely Difficult To Manage A High Level Of Performance Because You're Going To Get A Lot Of Extraneous Material Chipping Away At The Finery Of Your Thinking Or The Finery Of Your Motor Execution.

What Happens [in A Coma] Is That You Lose The Grounding Of The Self, You No Longer Have Access To Any Feeling Of Your Own Existence.