On the Matrix, neuroscience and dialogue

Abstract

The author poses a position statement that Foulkes underplayed the importance of emotions as an organizing principle in the mental life of groups, and indeed, paid very little attention to emotions in his published works. Evidence from the field of neuroscience is drawn upon to identify seven emotional neuro-chemical systems in the sub-cortical region of the brain. The fundamental emotions are: rage, fear, seeking, panic/grief, lust, care and play. The article makes a distinction between emotions, as being physiological responses triggered by neurochemical release caused by perception of both external and internal realities, whereas feelings are a higher order level of functioning at cognitive levels that can articulate cause, meaning and symbolism of the more visceral emotional experiences. The article puts forward the idea that emotions are the biological substrate of the Foundation Matrix, linking all of humanity and the mammalian world. In turn, groups and individuals have valences to particular emotional responses and this will be demonstrated with examples from the Personal, Social and Dynamic Matrices. An elaboration of the concept of dialogue, within the wider sphere of communication, is put forward, which the author argues is the group analytic expression of love (care). Love is mutative and facilitates the plasticity of the brain/mind relationship encouraging new neuronal connections to be made, linking sub-cortical brain regions with the neo-cortex thinking cap.