Up: [[Emotions]] Course: Art and Emotions with Sue Barclay, DEI Created: 2023-11-04 Updated: 2026-01-20 One of the interesting uniquenesses of Karla McLaren’s work on *The Language of Emotions* is the concept of emotional intensities. Karla’s position is that each family of emotions is available at soft, moderate and intense levels. Most of us have grown up not recognizing our emotions until they’re at intense levels, however, they are much easier to work with if we can identify them when they start to arrive rather than waiting until they are a five alarm fire. I’ve made lists of family groupings divided into the emotional intensities. - [[Intensities - Happiness Family of Emotions]] - [[Intensities - Anger, Apathy and Hatred]] - [[Intensities - Shame and Guilt]] - [[Intensities - Fear, Anxiety and Panic]] - [[Intensities - Jealousy and Envy]] - [[Intensities - Sadness Family of Emotions]] - [[Intensities - Depression and Suicidal Urges]] Sometimes the choices are hard to understand. For example, contemplative and relaxed are both listed under soft sadness rather than soft happiness. When I asked about this, it comes down to each of us needing to create our own emotional dictionaries. If contemplative is always or mostly in the happiness camp for me, I can put it there. After learning about emotional intensities, we were to draw little images for all three levels. I really like what I’ve done to represent [[dissociation]] — the face that isn’t fully there. ![[A&E Anger and Fear (sketchbook).webp|400]]