Written Pathetic Appeal Final Revision

In this revision of my written pathetic appeal, I tried to make the various portions of enargeia more accurate in their representation of people with bipolar disorder and also tried to make them flow to together better than they did before. I also deleted and reordered various sections that seemed to confuse the progression of the argument or brought in various statements that were too sweeping/general or unsubstantiated in nature. I also changed the ending of the appeal by including a few paragraphs that outline what should be done in response to the situation that I describe. I also tried to adjust the evidence leading up to this ending portion so that it would flow more naturally. I tried to change the tone at the end from one of frustration to one of hope in order to inspire the reader to more of an attitudinal or actionable change.

Final Project Proposal

In Pathos, we have explored the often-ignored realm of affect and emotion—the various pathe that Aristotle identified as integral to human thought and experience. We have discussed this arena from several angles, seeking to construct a clear understanding of it however possible, and have further specified the dynamics of this realm—largely, in contrast to the more traditionally considered realm of the rational or logical. Now, as we conclude our admittedly limited study, I am left with some conception of this very real sphere and the intense power and influence it has over human beings.

While I somewhat entered this course thinking that, for lack of a better contrast, reason trumped (or should trump in the best circumstances) emotion, I now see, to some extent, that the world of affect spoken of by Aristotle actually operates largely independently of reason, and, in reality, has at least an equal effect on our human experience. Consequently, I now find myself with somewhat of a dichotomy or a continuum [or something else], unclear about the relationship between these two realms.

It seems to me that research into this realm would have many applications, especially research into how the realm of the rational and the affective interact with each other. If we could learn to use reason to direct this realm or to describe it in some way, how could this impact our emotional experience? How could this influence decision making and our analysis of the world on several levels? Surely, the relationship of these two realms, and our understanding of it, would provide sharp insight into many aspects of human life.

For this project, I would like to address, or perhaps just pose, these questions and their implications for individuals who have what diagnosticians deem “emotional disorders.” First, I would like to explore how the dynamics we have discussed in this course show themselves in individuals such as these and what these individuals tell us about the affective realm. In addition, I want to explore the impact an understanding of a link between the rational and the affective might have in the experience of these individuals and suggest that this consideration would be instructive for all individuals, whether disabled or not. Some specifics follow:

• Given the breadth of this topic and the time limitations, I would like to address these issues in the form of a reflective essay. This essay would incorporate personal experience and observation that would relate some of the key concepts of the class to individuals with emotional disorders.

• The essay would simply pose issues; it would not seek to answer questions or prove an argument per se. Rather, the argument would be that these questions are significant and worthy of further consideration.

• The first part of the essay, perhaps 60-70%, would incorporate some narrative and some amount of studies or evidence with commentary, drawing from the content of the course and the authors we have read and highlighting how many of these concepts can be seen in or further informed by individuals with emotional disorders.

• The second part of the essay, perhaps 20-30%, would build on the experience of these individuals and describe—again through both experience and some form of empirical evidence—the significance of a bridge between the rational and the affective for these individuals.

• The remainder of the essay, the content of which might be interspersed throughout the essay, would include some consideration as to what all the previously mentioned discussion and reflection shows us about the relationship of the two realms for all human beings.

• For the visual/aural component of the project, I will incorporate some discussion of visual and aural items that can affect individuals with emotional disorders, either as therapies or in other ways; these items and their influence—whether positive or negative—will serve as further illustrations of the nature and significance of the affective and its relationship to the rational.

This reflective essay will not seek after depth of proof or breadth of coverage; rather, it will serve as my reflections related to the possible implications, applications, and further considerations regarding the content of this class with which I am leaving both Pathos and college, quite curious where the answers—if any—might lie.

Visual Pathetic Appeal (Revised)

Disability on Prezi

My visual pathetic appeal addresses the enduring fight for equality and civil rights in the United States of America—and specifically how this fight is experienced by the disabled. The main claim in the piece is that disabled persons are a minority group that we should not discriminate against, but should seek to provide the same civil rights as all others. The goal of the presentation is to cause viewers to consider how they view and treat disabled people and to persuade them to have a change of attitude toward this minority group.

The presentation begins with an image of a collection of words such as “equality” and “discrimination” which introduces the viewer to the setting of this presentation: it will discuss issues related to basic rights we hold dear as Americans. The first three images are of disabled persons, each looking very happy, innocent, and content. These images are meant to invoke some sense of pity and empathy in the viewer. After seeing these images, the viewer should be have some sensitivity toward and awareness of a group people with whom it is only natural to sympathize and desire to defend.

After the last image in this group, a picture of a boy with down-syndrome, the scene shifts downward to two picture of battered children with down-syndrome, both of whom are victims of discriminatory violence and hate crimes. Because of the pity invoked by the previous images, these violent pictures would intensify this pity even to the point of inspiring feelings of indignation.

Then, the presentation continues to fall downward and arrives at a summative picture that describes the nature of this treatment of the disabled that was just witnessed by the viewer. The picture shows someone kicking out someone from a wheelchair. The bitter simplicity of this image and the distasteful thought it implies would create further indignation and discomfort in the viewer.

After the viewer has reached this point of dissatisfaction and frustration, the presentation points upward toward a picture of Martin Luther King Jr. He is clearly actively involved in some form of advocacy and the viewer feels inspiration, excitement, and joy at the thought of such a hero rectifying the wrongs being committed against disabled individuals. The need is apparent: we need to fight for the civil rights of these individuals just as men like Martin Luther King fought for those of other minorities. Their struggle is identified with that of others who have sought equality and civil rights, leading the viewer to feel some sense of empowerment and dignity at the thought of spreading these values to other groups who have similar needs.

The images that follow seek to make this conceptual thought more practical. Images of accessibility signs, aids, and the Special Olympics all serve to produce a sense of hope in the viewer. The viewer sees that there are practical ways to bring these sought-after civil rights to the disabled community; these images offer a reassuring sense of fulfillment to the viewer that change is indeed possible in the way we view and treat the disabled, and the benefits are inestimable.

The presentation then lifts even higher, arriving at a famous picture of soldiers at Iwo Jima, a symbol of our national struggle for values such as liberty and equality. The viewer is led to see the significance of providing these values for disabled individuals as they are enjoyed by other Americans and the ongoing battle it will take to get there

The statement that follows sums up this dynamic by stating that the battle for equality lives on. But, it doesn’t stop there. It goes on to ask the viewer on which side he or she falls. The presentation has shown two sides to the battle and now these sides are brought to the personal experience of the viewer. The viewer is left with the thought that he or she is not exempt from the struggle but is a participant in it, whether positively or negatively. The basic interpretation for the viewer is that since they have seen and felt the needs of this struggling group, and believe certain values should be guaranteed to Americans, that their attitude change can impact the fight for better or for worse. Their feelings of pity cause them to care about the issue and the following feelings of indignation and hope show them two responses. They then are associated with this distinction and will likely choose to associate themselves with the positive emotions and thereby be left with an attitudinal shift in favor of the civil rights of the disabled community.

Photo credits (images marked with * accessed March 31, 2011; images marked with ** accessed April 5, 2011):

**Opening image: http://iannoon.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/equality-bill1.jpg

*Boy in wheelchair: http://pediatricwheelchair.org/wp-content/uploads/wheelchair_kids.jpg

*Blind children: http://www.scsdb.k12.sc.us/academic/blindSing-s.gif

*First down-syndrome boy: http://www.filteredsoundtraining.net/media/Boy%20WIth%20Downs%20Syndrome%20in%20FST.jpg

**First battered disabled person: http://www.lauraandwagner.com/resources/HateCrimes.jpg

**Second battered disabled person: http://feministactivism.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/violence-against-disabled.jpg?w=285&h=155

**Foot kicking disabled person:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__DmvpLJBcJg/S2Q5TxREB-I/AAAAAAAAAH8/JIWuW8uSjRI/s320/disabled.jpg

*Martin Luther King Jr.: http://cdn.babble.com/famecrawler/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/martin-luther-king2.jpg

**Wheelchair and arrow: http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/04/14/article-1265858-09205F7A000005DC-879_468x262.jpg

**Woman helping disabled children: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_T96e44yPIsA/TB2JjV2J8VI/AAAAAAAACSY/lc_utnakwis/s1600/20donovan-span-articleLarge-v2.jpg

*Second down-syndrome boy: http://www.agd.org/files/specialolympics.jpg

**Picture of Iwo Jima: http://jonathanturley.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/275px-ww2_iwo_jima_flag_raising.jpg

The Affective System

Disclaimer: In this blog, I attempt to build/construct my idea of affect based on Massumi’s writing. This may not necessarily accurately reflect what he intended to convey or what he actually thought/believed.

One major question related to our experience of affect is how connected the rational realm is to the affective and whether or not we are conscious of the forces operating on us in this realm. And if we are, how exactly are we conscious of these forces or how does reason interact with them? Aristotle’s description of emotions in his Rhetoric implies that we are very conscious of our emotions—so much so that we can actually alter them rationally (i.e. remove the object that is producing the emotion within us). Aristotle’s idea makes sense philosophically, but, as Brian Massumi describes, there is a lot more to it than this.

While Aristotle simply distinguished between emotion and reason and spoke about how the two work with each other, there may in fact be levels of feeling that are not directly tied to reason. At the very least, Massumi describes two broad realms that affect us emotionally but in very different ways. He explains that we may react emotionally to the “content” of an object but that we also have a response to the “effect” of that object (24). He would consider our emotional response to the content something actual, and it is something we can perceive and to which we can consciously respond; this is the realm Aristotle was probably referring to. But the effect of the object touches on a realm he refers to as the virtual (30-31). This realm is something that is not so consciously understood or experienced. As Massumi writes, this realm is the place “where what cannot be experienced cannot but be felt,” indicating that this realm involves all sorts of dynamics that we can’t just muster up on our own using our conscious, rational mind (30). Of course, as this realm affects us, eventually some conscious thought or experience emerges, and we rationally seek to identify what that experience was (30-31).

So, what bridges these two realms? What is in between? How does the virtual, non-rational, unconscious feelings get end up affecting us in our conscious mind? It seems to me that the force that connects these various dynamics and operates, both consciously in part, but primarily unconsciously, is the whole sphere of affect. Based on Massumi, I would like to pose a theory as to how this works.

Massumi describes affect as the force that speaks between the actual and the virtual realms. From my reading of Massumi, it is the point that seems to involve, influence, or be the product of all the various forces (32-33, 35). Consider the actual and the virtual as two ends of a continuum. Between these two realms, various levels may exist that act as individual reactors within us, responsive to varying amounts of the actual and the virtual. Reflection operates at each of these levels, which I interpret as a kind of internal consciousness—meaning a consciousness that operates within that level’s responsive system but is not something we ourselves are cognizant of—that causes a response or reaction at that very level before moving it to a higher level. This process of continual reflection causes a response of its own but also propels the responsive information it has processed or received on to a higher level of consciousness, moving further from the virtual to the actual. Together, all these levels bridge our relation to something (which is on the virtual level) to our reaction to it (which operates on the actual level). Since reflection happens on every level, Massumi identifies the key issue as how direct the link is between all the levels that exist between the virtual and the actual. Affect is the very sum of this force that operates on each of these levels, bringing each of them together. What differentiates people, then, is their ability to manage this linkage and the levels in between (36-38).

A fitting analogy to the process described above is our central nervous system. We receive all sorts of inputs in the various sensory input points throughout our body. These inputs travel through our nervous system at various points along the way until they meet their appropriate cortex, are recognized, and then the appropriate response is ordered. This describes the sympathetic nervous system. The parasympathetic nervous system operates differently. In this system, when certain inputs are received, there is an immediate order issued for a certain response, before those inputs are recognized by the brain consciously. With affect, our brain somewhat resembles the actual realm described by Massumi. All the sensory inputs are like the virtual, and the nervous system, spinal cord, etc. illustrate all the levels in between. The sympathetic nervous system described the overall move from the inputs toward the brain, but along the way, there are parasympathetic responses occurring at each instance, just as in the process of reflection. Affect the experience or feeling of this whole process. This is affect.

But the question remains: can it be managed? Honestly, I really don’t think it will ever be possible in entirety. Just as the nervous system is an elaborate system developed to manage our senses and responses, our affective system is intricately structured to manage our relations and reactions. And, as Massumi implies from the title of his chapter and further explains throughout it, affect is essentially autonomous; it operates independently and in its own way. The level of consciousness we can experience and how much we can alter these responses may simply be genetically, or societally, programmed. Yet, I wonder if there are ways to use the actual realm to affect responses to the virtual or if certain kinds of emotional therapies could be developed to alter responses (like the psychological technique of flooding used to address phobias). Either way, this outline of affect is truly fascinating and leaves much to be considered.

Massumi, Brian. Parables for the Virtual: Movement, Affect, Sensation. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2002. Web.