RT Article
T1 Turn your gaze upward! emotions, concerns, and regulatory strategies in Kierkegaard's Christian Discourses
JF International journal for philosophy of religion
VO 84
IS 3
SP 323
OP 343
A1 Carron, Paul
LA English
YR 2018
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1663420688
AB This essay argues that there are concrete emotion regulation practices described, but not developed, in Kierkegaard's Christian Discourses. These practices-such as attentiveness to emotion, attentional deployment, and cognitive reappraisal-help the reader to regulate her emotions, to get rid of negative, unwanted emotions such as worry, and to cultivate and nourish positive emotions such as faith, gratitude, and trust. An examination of the Discourses also expose Kierkegaard's understanding of the emotions; his view is akin to a perceptual theory of the emotions that closely connects emotions and concerns. In particular, this analysis unearths two main regulatory strategies located in the Discourses, strategies that closely resemble present-day psychological accounts of emotion regulation. I conclude that contemporary research reinforces Kierkegaard's philosophical analysis of emotions and emotion-regulation strategies. Drawing on this research provides the most persuasive interpretation of Kierkegaard's understanding of the emotions and emotion-regulation strategies. Additionally, present-day research clarifies the otherwise elusive, opaque strategies he describes. Finally, my analysis demonstrates that Kierkegaard's work can uniquely contribute to the present-day psychological research by emphasizing the need for diachronic regulation strategies, while the contemporary literature overwhelmingly focuses on synchronic strategies.
K1 Christian Discourses
K1 Emotion regulation
K1 Emotions
K1 Kierkegaard
K1 Moral Psychology
DO 10.1007/s11153-018-9661-6