The verbal faculty to better communicate emotion does well for exhibiting passions passionately, and that’s important. But, if the mutual goals of understanding and reconciliation are to be reached, describing the context and reasons for why those feelings arose is absolutely necessary.
That can’t be done throwing descriptive emotionally loaded words around; it doesn’t advance the dialogue further than “I’M (insert elaborate synonym for dissatisfied).” In these types of conflicts, sufficient cause has to be established before or immediately after expressing the feeling, otherwise the person on the other end believes he or she is being attacked for no reason. Emotion is for emphasis, in life and argument.
With that said, the Jan. 18 dating column covered a lot of ground. Carbonel’s advice “be as blatantly clear as possible” is sound. However, given the “concrete, goal based thought structure and vocabulary” of males, I think we as a gender deserve some more credit, because an enhanced verbal skill specialization in emotional expression can communicate nothing without foresight and clear, definite reasoning.
Christopher Dean Sahms
Philosophy freshman