Periodization? An answer from the history of emotions

The theory of ‘basic emotions’ postulates that emotions do not change over time. Tied to particular, posed facial expressions, those emotions – anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness and surprise – were long ago proposed by Paul Ekman and are now widely used in experiments by psychologists. The proposition that those six emotions are ‘hard-wired’, universal and constant is thus generally accepted. ¹ If this theory is true, there can be no history of emotions, and the topic of this chapter is moot.