Emotions can be understood as being healthy (adaptive), or unhealthy (maladaptive), according to Les Greenberg. Primary emotions are the first emotions people have in response to external or internal stimuli – gut feelings. Secondary emotions arise as reactions to primary emotions. These are more defensive or self-protective, tend to obscure primary emotions and are not adaptive. Instrumental emotions are experienced or expressed to achieve an aim and tend to be manipulative.
Primary emotions are adaptive if they help us orient to the environment and give good information about how to act. They can also be maladaptive as a result of past trauma or attachment problems and do not help us respond and cope effectively with a situation. They are reactions in the present to the past. Evolutionary basic emotions are fundamental and universal emotions with action tendencies. There is also a distinction between short emotional episodes which pass quickly and longer ones like sadness at a loss – the latter is generally referred to as a mood.
Secondary emotions like a feeling of depression or hopelessness can cover the shame of not being worthy; rage can be a secondary emotion arising as a result of loss of self-esteem. These arise in response to primary emotions and often interrupt or cover over the primary emotional experience. We can feel fear about something, then experience an anger or shame in response to that fear. Some emotions are secondary that arise in response to thinking – anxiety in response to catastrophising about the future. Secondary emotions tend to be ‘symptoms’ that are experienced as mental health problems, like panic or anxiety. When we become aware of secondary emotions, we can access the primary emotions underneath by asking: What else am I feeling? What feeling is underneath this feeling?