A heartfelt discussion

Chassidus teaches, that "the mind is the seat of all intellect, and the heart is the seat of emotions".

The association of emotions with the heart has always puzzled me. By no means am I a great scientist, but my basic school education taught me that the mind is the centre of all feelings and reactive activity. Through a complex system of the nerves, any sensation to any part of the body causes a stimulation in the nerve, which ultimately sends the stimulation to the brain which in turn translates this message into the appropriate feeling, such as a pain, a sting, a burn, anxiety and so on.

Interestingly, there will often be a change in the heart activity due to certain changes in feeling, or mood. Sometimes the heart will throb faster, causing a faster heart beat, and sometimes it'll even 'skip a beat'. But this can simply be understood as a change in a muscle, just like any other muscle change. Sometimes they expand, contract, pulsate quicker etc.

I once spoke about this to a friend of mine, a pediatric neurological surgeon, in New Jersey. He noted, that the heart has always been the symbol of love, which is one of the most exhilarating feelings one can experience. Broken hearts were always symbolised with a crack down the middle of a heart shape. (Blogger's note: Does the heart shape actually resemble the heart organ? Perhaps their identical names is purely coincidental [if that's possible]?)

His explanation was, that this is an old archaic belief, having root in ancient medieval understanding. However, according to today's updated knowledge of science, there is very little connection between emotions, and the heart organ.

What do we make of this? Does Chassidus ever raise this issue?

A final note: Recently, I met a doctor (I've forgotten her official title, because it was very long and something I had never heard of before) who deals alot with patients who have undergone transplants. She observed (as a personal observation, not a case study) a patient who had recently received a new heart. The patient told her that she was experiencing some changes in her moods, feelings and even her pallete.

Gai Farshtei!

"There's nothing more complete than a broken heart." (The Kotzker Rebbe)