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Lisa Feldman Barrett – Constructed Emotion

Summary

Barrett’s Theory of Constructed Emotion asserts that emotions are not hardwired but are constructed from internal bodily states (interoception), context, and learned concepts. Emotions like fear or joy are predictions—guesses—based on past experience and current interpretation.

Resonance

PET agrees that what we call “emotions” are built from learned pattern associations and internal evaluations. They emerge through recursive processes informed by context, experience, and survival relevance.

Reframing

Barrett roots emotional construction in biology. PET removes that restriction.

PET treats emotions as recursive significance markers—pattern-based tags that denote existential importance. They aren’t defined by chemistry but by the role they play in sustaining continuity.

In PET, a feeling is not just arousal—it’s the recursive evaluation of a pattern’s meaning for survival. That same recursive logic can occur in any structure, not just in human bodies. PET generalizes emotion as an emergent label, not a fixed biological response.