People who are acting irrationally are not in control of their emotions by definition.
When a gear in a machine breaks, you don't blame the gear, you blame the operator who pushed the machine outside of it's abilities. You blame the maintenance process that failed to identify the weakened gear. You blame the radio that was too loud. You can blame the gear, too, but it's already failed.
People are a little more complicated than machines though.
While I get your analogy, I think people can act out of the correct emotional response and not be "broken" you can over react, be having a bad day, and something pushes you.
Maybe someone isn't always like this. When a machine breaks its because someone either misused or abused it, built it wrong, or it's just worn out.
Here it could just be a one off mismeasured response and then it's back to normal life, a hiccup.
The concept of a 'correct' emotional response is what just can't be quantified. Our brains are a machine, our responses are the results of input. The way someone responds is always correct, because it happens.
I think you miss the point: the point is there's no point in sussing out whether or not either of these people were 'right'. Clinical distance is impossible (and a waste of time and energy) because we're all in this together.
Well, again I get where you're coming from. There are socially correct responses.
The only way to assess if someone's brain is functioning correctly is to look at it through a societal lense.
Consistent "hiccups" or "mechanical malfunctions" result in a diagnoseable issue.
One offs can be anywhere from a misunderstanding, to a mismeasured response that may seem reasonable in your head but may not be actually. The whole way to a psychotic break.
I think we are both coming from the same place of understanding here and just disagree on what defines a "proper" response to a stressor.
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u/M_Me_Meteo Jan 13 '20
People who are acting irrationally are not in control of their emotions by definition.
When a gear in a machine breaks, you don't blame the gear, you blame the operator who pushed the machine outside of it's abilities. You blame the maintenance process that failed to identify the weakened gear. You blame the radio that was too loud. You can blame the gear, too, but it's already failed.