EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE E.Q.

Author: Daniel Gloleman, Publishing House Cartea Veche,

Book review dr. Constantin Lupu Conceived in five parts, in Part One, the book
presents the recent imagistic discoveries on the
Publishers consider that Daniel Goleman’s book emotional architecture of the brain that offer locations
has produced an amazing revolution in psychology by both for the positive emotions and behaviours
its minute analysis of the emotions that shape the and for what is the most unfavourable in our lives.
human personality. Inspired by the results of research Understanding the interactions at the level of brain
on human brain and behaviour, the author proposed different structures which rule fury, aggression, fright
that the concept of intelligence should be expanded. or joy and passion, enables us to understand also the
Besides the well known term of I.Q. – the Intelligence way we acquire our emotional impulses and habits.
Quotient – D. Goleman promotes the study of the In Part Two, the author shows us how the limbic
intelligence of feelings, i.e. E.Q., which involves system is an essential part of the emotional brain, a
concepts such: as self consciousness, self discipline discovery that has been around for fifty years. Joseph Le
and empathy. Doux, who is quoted by Goleman, has demonstrated
As concept and value, emotional intelligence was that the amygdala nuclei from the cerebral limbic
launched in 1990 by Salovey and Mayer and since system are connected through specialised circuits to
then, research has extended while the new orientation the prefrontal lobes thus the neurologic mechanisms
in psychology has lead to a scientifically demonstrable of our emotional lives are constituted.
theory and to a real formula which helps measure The studies of the specialist in neurosciences,
this ability to live better. Based on these discoveries, Joseph Le Doux, have also made it clear that each
training programmes have been designed in order to emotion is located in a specific area of the brain. All
build characters, to prevent violence and aggressiveness, such areas have direct links with the limbic system,
to prevent drug consumption, and to improve school while the register of the emotional memory is
discipline. It has been prove that if we teach children achieved by this intercommunication. The activities
to improve their self consciousness, to control their of the emotional memory to which the hippocampus
negative impulses and to develop their empathy, participates, too, are also determined by the human
we shall obtain positive behaviours and improved neuro-endocrinologic system, which is driven by the
school performance. The theory on delinquency cerebral emotional centres, i.e. hypophysis and adrenal
and the thinking pattern of aggressiveness may also glands. Thus we should remember that the amygdala
be improved by emotion education programmes, is responsible for the immediate and direct impulsive
while the depressive conditions are considerably vegetative reactions, while the positive prefrontal
diminished. neocortical reactions are slower. It is important to
The author also analyses the costs of emotional know that we may train the emotional reactions of
illiteracy which leads to delinquency, violence, suicide, children through educational programmes which
drug consumption, severe aggressiveness, irrational could help them know and understand their positive
impulsivity, adherence to life denying social groups and negative feelings.
of the emo type, and to other emotionally negative It is clear that the educational benefit of emotions
aspects. is very important for the corresponding developmental

Journal of Romanian Child and Adolescent Neurology and Psychiatry - 2010 - 13th vol. - no. 3 183
age. In the past century, when prefrontal lobotomy on self-awareness: the more open towards our own
was in use, the link between the cortex and the basal emotions, the more capable to get near and to interpret
limbic system (cerebral amygdalae) was thus cut other people’s feelings. The capacity to understand
off. Following those ablations, the patients became what the others feel is a human and humanitarian
unresponsive, losing all their emotional abilities. ability. The lack of empathy (apathy or alexithymia,
Taking into consideration the structures of the brain, i.e. the difficulty in describing and feeling one’s own
the author makes an analysis of the possibilities of emotions) is detected in criminals, sadistic aggressors,
harmonizing the thoughts and emotions, which are rapists, in child, animal and people abusers.
included in the psychic life, and he concludes that “we Our empathic capacity allows us to establish good
have two brains, two minds and two different types of and correct relationships with our fellow beings.
intelligence: the rational one and the emotional one”. Those children with empathic aptitudes expressed in
From this part of the book one may retain that the their body language by means of non-verbal signals
cerebral neurological support has an essential role in mainly at face mimicry level, are liked the most by
the experiences of emotional intelligence. This second their peers. Researchers have demonstrated that 90%
part of the volume, entitled ‘The Nature of Emotional of emotional communication is non-verbal.
Intelligence’, presents sets of advantages of people Empathy is rooted in early childhood. Practically
endowed with interpersonal intelligence. speaking, the newborn and the infants suffer when
Goleman agrees with Salovey’s five main they hear another child crying. This manifestation
components of emotional intelligence: might be called an early precursor of empathy. The
1. Knowing one’s own emotions, which implies the developmental psychologists have discovered that the
recognition of a feeling when it happens, respectively, infants react more understandingly to their mother’s
the realization of one’s own self (called by the translator or someone else’s suffering. It is known that child
Margareta Nistor “self awareness”), this feature empathy develops by imitating the reactions of the
being the cornerstone of emotional intelligence. This adults the when they suffer. By imitating what they
attribute was made famous by Socrates who urged us: see, the children develop a reactive empathic repertory,
“Know thyself ”; helping those in need.
2. Managing emotions , by keeping them under Daniel Stern is the first to sustain that “when
control; they interact with their babies, mothers transmit the
3. Motivating oneself, which means summoning emotional connection minute by minute” and the child
up emotions in order to achieve a goal; must feel mother’s emotions, too, not only hear her
4. Recognizing emotions in others or empathy, words. When the baby starts to feel that other persons
which is the basis of the capacity to understand the can and do transmit emotions, it will share the same
others. emotions with them. The transmission of emotions is a
5. Handling relationships, that is, the skill to skill that appears at the age of around 8 months, when
establish relationships or “the capacity to manage the infants start to realize they are separate entities and
other people’s emotions”. that they can take over empathic states.
In the book, we also find an analysis of optimism, The absence of a parent-child relationship is
of the so called learning in a state of flow (an aptitude a severe emotional pain that transforms the child
described by Mihaly Csikszentmihaly), of empathy. into an apathetic, non-communicative, depressive
Empathy is the most investigated of all abilities being. However, these deficiencies of empathy are
during the last 20 years. The notion was initially used corrected by relationships with relatives, friends or
in modern psychology by E.B. Titchener starting with by psychotherapy. Empathy is a continuous, lifelong
1920, from the greek word empatheia which comes process.
from (en), “in, at” + (pathos), “passion” or “suffering”. At present, we consider that the empathic
Present studies have established that empathy is built emotional life is located in the amygdala nuclei.

184 Journal of Romanian Child and Adolescent Neurology and Psychiatry - 2010 - 13th vol. - no. 3
They communicate with the associative area of the In a section entitled “Abuse: The Extinction of
visual cortex through circuits which constitute the Empathy” from Chapter 12, “The Family Crucible,”
fundamental part of the empirical life. Life without Goleman explains that parents’ beatings warp a
empathy generates many severe actions. Those who child’s natural bent toward empathy. Wickedness
commit the worst of crimes (holocaust, gulags, the and violence replace empathy. The cruelty of children
ethnic crimes from Armenia, Cambodia, etc.) are abused by their parents or by society (refugees,
usually deprived of empathy. The psychological profile abandoned children or those whose parents are away
of extremely violent criminals and aggressors is the at work or who are brought up by strangers, etc.) is
same: they are incapable to understand their victims’ the result of life circumstances where the emotional
sufferings, thus, they are incapable of empathy. life was inexistent. Equally important are the sections
The blockage of empathy in these people during “Trauma and Emotional Relearning”, “Horror Frozen
the moments when they torture their victims is a in Memory” and “The Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
as Limbic Disorder” by the examples and the neuro
component part of certain emotional states which
– endocrine motination of negative behaviours like
accelerate their cruel impulses. The victims’ feelings of
violence, aggression, distuction and murder.
fright, horror, disgust, etc. are not taken into account
Part Four ends with the chapter “Temperament is
by the aggressors.
not Destiny”. The author reminds us that there are
Part Three is more pragmatic with its suggestive
four types of genetic temperament: shy, assertive, joyful
title: “Emotional Intelligence Applied and its content
and melancholic and that each of them is generated
of clear examples which help the author support
by a different type of brain activity. However, there are
his ideas. We find out that “our genetic inheritance innumerable variations in temperament, each having
gives us a series of inborn emotions which shape our as support the inborn variations at the level of the
temperament”, while the brain circuits are capable of brain emotional circuitry ( J. Kagan). In this chapter,
a continuous, extraordinary flexibility which may be Goleman presents not only the study of the neuro-
directed. The author expresses his confidence in the chemistry of shyness but also “the taming of a too
healing force of the emotional support, as well as in the excitable amygdala”. He quotes Torsten Nils Wiesel
benefit of the emotional intelligence for health care. and David H. Hubel, both of them neuroscientists
This is what Goleman demonstrates in Part who studied the brain circuits and who, in 1981, won
Four saying that “the emotional lessons we learn in the Nobel Prize in Physiology for their discoveries
our childhood – at home and at school – shape our concerning information processing in the visual
emotional circuits, making us more easily adaptable, system.
or, on the contrary, inadaptable” to the expressions of Part Five analyses “The Cost of Emotional
emotional intelligence. This means that adolescence Illiteracy,” (Chapter 15), which is imputable to society
and childhood are windows of opportunity towards and the “Taming of Aggressiveness” which is the
training the essential emotional manifestations problem of psychotherapists.
that will dominate our existence. Part Four, entitled It should be noted that boys are predictable
“Windows of opportunity”, describes the most ever since their first school years when they will
adequate emotional patterns used by parents: create problems, will be hostile, with a tendency to
• ignoring all feelings, treating any of their child’ commit small offences which will turn into theft,
anger as unimportant or insignificant, when they unjustified fights, interest in drugs and subjection
should try to understand the child’s feelings, instead; to organised gangs even before they reach 14 years.
• being too permissive, up to appoint where they The girls with the same habits do not become violent,
they become pregnant. It is possible to short-circuit
buy the calmness and recovery;
these negative situations if children are taught to
• displaying contempt for the child’s feelings,
know and understand themselves and to acquire an
followed by severe interdictions.

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empathic thinking, thus avoiding school violence and As an example, he presents the positive situation
depression. of those who are able to manage their emotional lives
Problems such as alcohol, drugs and medicine with calm and self-awareness. These people, according
addiction are also dealt with together with the ones to Goleman, might be more clearly advantaged in
concerning victims of paedophilia and of practicing maintaining their good health. One may conclude
paedophilia. that there is no exclusion or competition between
The author proposes various schemes of promoting the two systems of quotients, I.Q and E.Q., on the
emotional literacy in agreement with the emotional contrary, there is conjugation and correspondence of
development timeline, considering that the optimal qualities. H. Gardner, who developed the “Theory of
structure is at very young ages continued during Multiple Intelligences”, has launched a new way of
school years, too. dealing with the functions of the brain. Thus, we can
Without emotional education and empathy we accept the existence of certain domains which have
might find ourselves on the verge of “a storm of not been studied yet in the area of intelligences.
delinquency and crime” which will come upon us in Let us not forget that D. Goleman is a journalist
the following years. trained as a psychologist at Harvard. For a lifetime
It is well known the fact that murders committed he has been implied in psychological studies and has
by 14 -15 years old teenagers are on the rise, while supported every new discovery in these fields. He has
severe misbehaviour increased at all age groups. also launched and supported the concept of Social
D. Goleman draws the reader’s attention to certain Intelligence (S.I.) with its Social Quotient (S.Q.), to
errors that might be committed by generalizing the which we add the concept of Cultural Intelligence
Emotional Intelligence through the myth according (still not tackled in psychological quantifications).
to which E.Q. “is more important that I.Q.” He D. Goleman’s four-hundred-and-thirty page
advocates that emotional intelligence precedes volume, titled “Emotional Intelligence” is so
I.Q. “especially in those areas of human life where captivating and full of associations which complete our
the intellect is less relevant for the achievement of knowledge in the field that I responsibly recommend
success”, in those situations where empathy and self- it to be read by all psi specialists.
control might represent more remarkable abilities
than the pure cognitive ones.

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