The current fiasco which is called the Russia-Ukraine war is an unprovoked attack by a psychopathic killer, who is the leader of the attacking country, on an underdog country which has not attacked anyone. This horrible attack raises so many emotions in people that are characterized by a sense of helplessness, a helplessness that we cannot fight or do anything to prevent this horrible, devastating debacle. Emotions are strong but submerged, because to feel them directly would be too overwhelming. Many people who are involved have likely numbed their emotion, a common occurrence under terrific tragedies like this.
This is an overwhelming, overpowering helplessness. Many people donate money to do their share, to help, to prevent feeling tremendous guilt. Our feelings are largely submerged, stifled and numbed because there is no place for them to go, although on the other hand our emotions are probably just below the surface, ready to erupt. Many people feel an internal rage, a feeling that very few act on, and then, if they do, these few who are able volunteer to go over to the Ukraine and fight for the underdog, the country of Ukraine which is being so unfairly attacked. Or they help Ukraine in an active way, providing food, money, shelter, water, medical aid and other types of help while they stay safe in the home country. Some are promoting the acceptance of Ukrainian refugees. Otherwise, our mood is lowered to a level of chronic apathy, which really reflects the helplessness of the situation.
There is little, if any, overt emotional contagion at this time, as the emotional contagion is covert, as all the contagious emotions are likely submerged into the collective subconscious, where many people likely think the unspeakable thoughts that we may hear about after some resolution occurs but decide not to make the unspeakable thoughts conscious now. Those who are actively helping will feel positive emotions, which may be somewhat contagious, but not too strongly because the war continues.
This is a situation where emotions defer to the mind, which thinks, as we realize that we cannot do much else, because we are blocked by the reality of the situation, the thousands of miles between us and the location of the bombing and devastation, as well as the realities that stand in the way, for example, that many of us are not of the fighting age, that many of us have jobs to attend to and cannot just leave to go off and fight. In situations like this, the realities are obvious and our intellectual judgments easily realize their truths.
Some people may think that this war is an indication that wars do not involve emotions, as the attacker, Russia’s president, seems so methodical in his approach. But this is not the case. It very much was produced by the aggrandizement or glorification of self that comes with the power and control it brings, as if he sees Russia as part of himself. This is illogical, of course, as no person is a country, but when a person is delusional, as its president seems to be, he or she will ignore logic. Along with it, however, seems to be the absence of emotion at a detectable level, the likelihood that the mind is blocking the typical immediacy of the emotions in its speed of intervening, so that the emotion remains as an omnipresent but undetectable energizer and provider of the fuel, in the background, without the typical urgency and interruption of the mind that the emotion usually brings. This is typical of the psychopath, whose emotion is so deeply emerged that people are fooled into thinking that the individual is emotionless. This is likely because of the strength of fear he harbors inside himself, fear he is hiding deep within himself so that ho one detects it. There is fear of Ukraine joining NATO and of Russia being overtaken by NATO countries, which would amount in his mind to a devastation of self, since he seems to see Russia as part of himself. He fears being defeated, and he is able to block detection of this fear by others, since it would make him appear vulnerable and liable to defeat. Instead, the emotion truly fuels the mind, which may be why we don’t see his emotion outwardly, because it is re-directed to provide his mind with energy to undertake his task, which is to calculate his strategy. Likely however, this will be unsuccessful, because the emotion has very likely infected his mind and his judgment.
A mind infected with emotion and so driven for success is unlikely to see all the facts in front of it, because of the blinders he wears. The emotion of fear provides these blinders, as he panics inwardly about the loss he so desperately fears. He can not tolerate a loss, because he would see it as a loss of himself, since he sees Russia as a part of himself. Rumors are that he is blind to the losses his military and country has experienced. There is likely a delusion of grandeur as he seems to visualize himself as bigger than he really is, or he wants to establish himself as bigger than anything in the world, which is impossible. Instead we are left with the unfortunate situation of what happens when vengeful emotional needs fuel the thoughts, by producing the thoughts necessary to make the plans that will satisfy the emotion’s vengeful, destructive needs. He likely has been able to defer the need for immediate gratification, which otherwise is common when emotions are so strong that they overpower the mind. He is the expert at delayed gratification, and will wait as long as it takes for his anticipated reward. But the emotion is still the prime motivator, along with the likelihood that the thoughts and plans were in place for years and possibly decades before the attack.
Because of this very deep submergence of his emotions, emotional contagion is less likely to occur, as it usually comes forth from overt emotions. Instead, it is the others who will feel the contagious emotions stemming from those in the population who show strong fear and anger. They are the ones who may propel contagious emotions to others that are liable to be absorbed. And then when heightened emotions move about in society, there is a strong propensity for them to be acted on. This is likely one of the causes of the increase in emotions in Western society in the past year, producing an increase of depressive disorders and anxiety disorders, as well as an increase in shootings and knifings, propelled by anger spilling over the edge.