Working on the Emotions
There are movies and TV programs that attempt to work on an emotional level. It's something that is very difficult to do well because if carried out badly they become mawkishly sentimental. These are so-called 'chick flicks' and many men will express a sentiment on the lines "get over it" or "get a life". The movies become self-indulgent. Done well, however, they can elicit an emotional response, what I've called a 'Turning on' to emotions. Invariably in these movies there is a musical component as music can move the soul like few other things can. Poetry used to have this quality but nowadays people can't relate to words alone - it takes too much work.
The emotional response has a physiological as well as a psychological action.
For example, the release of certain hormones can give rise to crying. Of course,
this works both ways and the hormones that are released during menstruation
and during pregnancy give rise to powerful emotional feelings. Recently a young
Australian singer was diagnosed with Cancer, and it's often the case that the
emotions brought up by the singing cause such diseases. Other singers have developed
diseases associated with the immune system.
Singing in close harmony can give rise to a powerful emotional empathy and this was used in the early churches in Gregorian Chanting, which was performed as a close harmony without instruments. This 'evolved' into the hymns that are sung in churches today, although these usually don't elicit the emotional feeling that chanting could produce.
Emotions are related to intellect. If you see a movie, let's say it's about an abused girl who commits suicide, you will probably have particular emotions. Now, if you were told the movie was actually true then probably these emotions would be amplified. The intellectual knowledge has elicited an emotional response. Charities sometimes write begging letters which have pictures of children who, you are to assume, have been helped by the charity. In fact there are whole political movements that are driven by intellectual assumptions. People think that being driven into an emotional frenzy is a substitute for rational thinking. The assumption is "I must be right because I feel so strongly". Members of the Klu Klux Klan in America also have strong feelings. It doesn't make them right.
