Mood’s Disclosure of Interrelatedness: A Phenomenological Analysis
Abstract
In both everyday speech and academic literature, mood is often cast either as a fleeting phenomenon which does not reflect real qualities of the outside world, or as a problem to be managed. Mood’s Disclosure of Interrelatedness challenges these predominant preconceptions about mood by taking up a phenomenological analysis of what it is like to experience mood from a first-person perspective. My argument pays particular attention to the disclosure of the interrelatedness between oneself and others which takes place in mooded experience. I argue that each mood discloses the interdependence between oneself and other persons, as well as the proximity or distance which characterizes one’s perceived status in relation to them, from a distinct angle. To illustrate this, I analyze the experience of the moods of melancholy, compassion, anxiety, and bliss.My proposed account of mood can be contrasted with prominent accounts of the related phenomena of affect, a pre-personal force which manifests itself within and simultaneously escapes capture within experience, and emotion, a state which takes a particular entity or event in the world as its object. I argue that though the relationship between mood and affect cannot be determined through phenomenological analysis, the relationship between mood and emotion can be characterized as a feedback loop which features resonance and dissonance between the two different types of states.Considering mood’s disclosure of interrelatedness provides insight into the experience of depression, which is commonly labeled as a mood disorder in literature on psychopathology. The moods which feature most prominently in depression commonly emphasize a sense of alienation from the social world in a way that poses an existential threat to the experiencer. By employing a phenomenology of mood towards an analysis of depression, I highlight the advantages of this strategy for identifying understudied aspects of psychopathological phenomena and of healthy experiences of mood.
Subject Area
Philosophy
Recommended Citation
Steiner, Corey, "Mood’s Disclosure of Interrelatedness: A Phenomenological Analysis" (2022). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI29168666.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI29168666
