ABSTRACT
Communicative listening and formulating made it possible to explore and map the architecture of the emotion-processing mind—the cognitive mental module that is responsible for adapting to emotionally charged impingements or triggering events. The emotion-processing mind is an evolved organ of adaptation with two parallel processing systems. One system is linked directly to awareness, and the other lacks such a link. The two systems of the emotion-processing mind have evolved structures that selectively perceive and accept meanings from those aspects of the environment that it has been internally configured to experience. An evolutionary perspective is helpful for understanding the current architecture and functioning of the two systems of the emotion-processing mind. The conscious system has been fashioned with a very wide range of sensitivities, though it is programmed by natural selection to miss a great deal as well. The evolved deep unconscious system of the emotion-processing mind experiences the emotional world almost exclusively in terms of rules, frames, and boundaries.
