The Alba Method and the Science of Emotions
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The Alba Method and the Science of Emotions Juan Pablo Kalawski 1 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract The Alba Method, also known as Alba Emoting™, is a way to work with emotions by using specific respiratory, postural, and facial behaviors. The Alba Method is based on psychophysiological research. This article reviews the original research that gave rise to the method. Criticisms and limitations of that research are noted. The article then presents relevant recent theory and research. Recent theoretical and empirical work suggests that anger, fear, sadness, joy/laughter, eroticism, and tenderness are distinct emotions and that each includes a specific respiratory, postural, and/or facial pattern. Recent research also shows that somatic feedback can induce anger, fear, sadness, and joy. Of note, there is a lack of studies on the breathing and postural patterns of eroticism. More studies will be needed to solve discrepancies in the description of the breathing patterns of tenderness, laughter, and sadness. Keywords Breath work . Basic emotions . Emotional expression . Somatic feedback and
emotions . Tenderness . Eroticism The Alba Method, also known as Alba Emoting™, is an approach for working with emotions through the intentional application of specific bodily actions. In order to illustrate how the method works, below is a first person account from a workshop attendee: [Susana Bloch, the main developer of the method] noticed me and beckoned me to join the participants on the floor. “Please do exactly as I request,” she said, “breathe this way.” She instructed me specifically how to breathe in and out, and then she came back quietly instructing postural, facial, and muscular changes in addition to breathing, a total of five times. The final instruction, “now…unfocus your eyes,” catapulted me into a full-blown sexual arousal –no context, no
* Juan Pablo Kalawski [email protected]
1
Facultad de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades, Universidad Autónoma de Chile, Av. Alemania 01090, Edificio A, 6° Piso, Temuco, Chile
Integr Psych Behav
psychological or direct physical stimulus –in a room full of judgmental strangers. So sudden, so astonishing was this full-body experience that I shall never in my life forget it! (Angelin 2010, p. 2). The Alba Method is based on laboratory studies on human emotions (Bloch et al. 1991; Bloch et al. 1987; Bloch et al. 1994; Bloch and Santibáñez-H 1973; Lemeignan et al. 1992; Santibáñez-H and Bloch 1986). The goal of the present article is to assess the scientific support for the Alba Method. I will first review the original research that gave rise to the method. Next, I will present some of its applications in order to illustrate the relevance of the Alba Method. I will then note some criticisms and limitations of the research behind the method and present subsequent studies that address those potential shortcomings.
The Research Basis of the Alba Method In Chile, in 1970, Susana Bloch and Guy Santibáñez started a research program to stu
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