Minding Emotions: The Embodied Nature of Emotional Self-Regulation

This article addresses concerns that the "nonreductive physicalism" (NRP) approach to understanding human nature may lead to a new form of determinism. The principal thesis of the article is that we can retain the idea of willful and responsible action even within the NRP perspective. Three additional positions are advanced: (1) Emotional processes are an essential part of our willful nature; (2) Emotions participate in the emergent nature of thought that leads to the quality of "soulishness"; and (3) We can self-regulate our emotions, even within a seemingly "closed" physical system. The article draws from current psychological theories as well as a number of studies in neuropsychology to support these positions.