ABSTRACT
Most emotions are better understood, of course, as strange attractors, since, for all of us, emotional states and interactions are never exactly repeated, yet they tend to be similar from time to time, producing a trend toward some regularity. Emotions are powerful attractors in interpersonal systems, too. Clearly, all pleasant emotions tend to act as attractors, whereas, usually, unpleasant emotions such as distress or sadness tend to act as repellors. Naming each emotion has its advantages, most of all the possibility of going beyond the vagueness of a generic emotionality. But it also has its shortcomings, particularly the risk of making objects out of emotions, that are no objects at all. Anger, in any case, does not necessarily lead to aggression; neither is it certain that to express aggression, instead of repressing or hiding one's own anger, is therapeutic in itself, as it is thought by the advocates of "free expression" of emotions.
