Talk:Emotional competence

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[edit] Subversion of emotional competence

The point of emotional competence, and what makes it different from concepts such as emotional intelligence, is that it recognises that emotions are normal and valuable parts of being human. Other approaches all end up buying into the common and destructive attitudes that emotions are dangerous, or at least unhelpful, and should be controlled or suppressed.

Emotional competence is an important part of personal self empowerement, people who are comfortable with their emotions and with expressing them are more powerful. Being comfortable with anger, for instance, helps people to be able to deal with aggression or abuse, being comfortable with fear helps people to handle danger well. The whole business of trying to coerce people into suppressing their emotions, or being afraid of their emotions, is to do with controlling people, i.e. oppressing them.John Talbut 07:32, 19 November 2006 (UTC)