[FRIAM] Unpleasant dreams

[glen]

I had a conversation with a psychiatrist friend of mine wherein she assumed the dichotomy between "good feelings" and "bad feelings" (e.g. an angry or relieved reaction to some thing like the Trump verdict). Through about an hour of conversation, I'd tried to convince her that dichotomy is false. Bad things are good and good things are bad. The valence we assign is post-hoc. I failed, of course. But...

I feel the same way about phobias. It's a bit trite to suggest that we like exploring our fears in a safe environment like at a movie theater with a friend or two. But it's testament to the milieu that monsters vs treasures is a false dichotomy. And it goes beyond some complementarity like banking present pain for future pleasure. It's truly a dual. The highs *are* the lows and vice versa. If there is such a thing as free will, your assignment of valence might be the only freedom you have.

I don't know if Bloom explores this aspect. But the body of work spawned from Friston and the minimization of surprisal targets it directly. It's reasonable to believe that *agency* is what provides the common substructure for an explanatory model of the ascription of valence to an experience. The hypothetical to explore is whether those experiences that promote agency are more often ascribed as (or felt like) "good" ones, whether painful, pleasurable, fearful, triumphant, or whatever the token ascribed.

On 6/3/24 13:15, Jochen Fromm wrote:
> Did you notice that some of the most successful movies from Spielberg are about our deepest fears? Jurassic Park is about monsters from the past. Jaws is about monsters which lurk in the deep blue sea. Indiana Jones is about monsters (and treasures) hiding in dark tombs.
> 
> 
> Paul Boom remarks in his book "The Sweet Spot" that psychologists have long known that unpleasant dreams are more frequent than pleasant ones. Why is that so? Do unpleasant dreams prepare us for possible dangers or are we just relieved that the are over if they end?
> 
> https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-sweet-spot-paul-bloom?variant=40262533840930


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