How to turn off your emotions

I hope I’m in the right spot here. Not really sure if this belongs in Psychology or maybe the Fringe section.

Anyway, my buddy and I have been going back and forth on something. We're wondering if it's actually possible—maybe through hypnosis, autosuggestion, or something else—to just switch off emotions? Like, to completely erase feelings toward everyone and everything (kind of like how the Vulcans are in ST 😬).
My friend thinks it's doable, though he can't really explain how, and I guess I'm more of a "maybe not" kind of guy 🙂.

Cheers...

It’s entirely possible...

much like the Vulcans in ST 🙂

you can't simply switch off your emotions, but you can learn to master them...
once you achieve that level of control, even the most intense desires and feelings become things you can suppress at will...

A lobotomy, most likely...🙂

Olivia Cook said:I hope I’m in the right spot here. Not really sure if this belongs in Psychology or maybe the Fringe section.

Anyway, my buddy and I have been going back and forth on something. We're wondering if it's actually possible—maybe through hypnosis, autosuggestion, or something else—to just switch off emotions? Like, to completely erase feelings toward everyone and everything (kind of like how the Vulcans are in ST 😬).
My friend thinks it's doable, though he can't really explain how, and I guess I'm more of a "maybe not" kind of guy 🙂.

Cheers...

Sure, you can do it... via lobotomy. You just sever the neural pathways between the frontal lobe and the thalamus and hypothalamus, and boom—there you go. No more feelings. 😉

It's possible—if you live it every day and just keep diving deeper into physics. Basically, you need to get it to the point where it's second nature.

Look, you can use discipline and specific techniques to manage how you feel, but you aren't actually deleting them. People don't even grasp what it means to truly wipe out emotions entirely,
they seem to think that just by convincing yourself—like, "I'm never going to love anyone, I'm totally numb"—that suddenly you've become some kind of emotionless machine... wow, you're such a dangerous rebel now...
But being completely devoid of feeling? That’s way more messed up. It's when they basically butcher or shred your emotions inside your brain until there's nothing left. You wouldn't even care if you loved a certain food or not, you wouldn't feel anger, or joy, or boredom, or anything at all... just total emptiness.

Morgan Bishop4 said:Look, you can use discipline and specific techniques to manage how you feel, but you aren't actually deleting them. People don't even grasp what it means to truly wipe out emotions entirely,
they seem to think that just by convincing yourself—like, "I'm never going to love anyone, I'm totally numb"—that suddenly you've become some kind of emotionless machine... wow, you're such a dangerous rebel now...
But being completely devoid of feeling? That’s way more messed up. It's when they basically butcher or shred your emotions inside your brain until there's nothing left. You wouldn't even care if you loved a certain food or not, you wouldn't feel anger, or joy, or boredom, or anything at all... just total emptiness.

Yeah. You either end up like a vegetable or you spiral straight into deep depression.

Nancy Thompson3 said:Yeah. You either end up like a vegetable or you spiral straight into deep depression.

Anyone hanging out in the depression threads will tell you the same thing—depression is basically just a massive pileup of emotions, and most people label them as "negative."
I know this from my own life, sure, but I’ve read it in books too!
I remember someone once posted a really insightful piece about emotions based on work by Antonia Damasio over on the IMF forums. It would be awesome if someone could track that down and paste it here. If I don't do it, it feels like nobody ever will!

urbangardener35 actually makes a solid point here. Brain dysfunction—it’s a broad term, isn't it?—can absolutely be the culprit behind someone losing their emotional range. And honestly, it doesn't always have to be something as extreme as a lobotomy. We're talking about things like a brain tumor or even just the lingering aftereffects of a bad car accident... there are so many ways the hardware can malfunction.

Olivia Cook said:I hope I’m in the right spot here. Not really sure if this belongs in Psychology or maybe the Fringe section.

Anyway, my buddy and I have been going back and forth on something. We're wondering if it's actually possible—maybe through hypnosis, autosuggestion, or something else—to just switch off emotions? Like, to completely erase feelings toward everyone and everything (kind of like how the Vulcans are in ST 😬).
My friend thinks it's doable, though he can't really explain how, and I guess I'm more of a "maybe not" kind of guy 🙂.

Cheers...

If it is possible, I'm curious if this has ever been done to someone, if it could actually be helpful, or if there is any medical precedent for such a practice.

Noah Sanchez7 said:If it is possible, I'm curious if this has ever been done to someone, if it could actually be helpful, or if there is any medical precedent for such a practice.

One defining trait of a sociopath is their incredibly limited capacity for emotional engagement. So, honestly? I find it hard to believe that some kind of procedure to "switch off" emotions would offer any real help.

For a while, I was really caught up in all of this (mostly because of the Vulcans 😘), so I tried my best to keep my emotions in check. Part of the reason was just that I felt like I was being way too sensitive—which, honestly, didn't really help matters at all.
Still, I suppose there might be a way to actually make it work.

Even if it were possible, it would be practically impossible.
A person without any emotions wouldn't even be able to make the simplest decisions; they could spend hours just agonizing over whether to order a latte or a black coffee.
I remember reading about a similar case where someone ended up in that exact situation due to a brain injury.

Thanks for all the replies!
Just one quick question, since I’m definitely no expert and I'm a little lost here.
That part someone mentioned about cutting nerve pathways in the brain... was that just a joke, or is that actually a thing?

Yeah, I think I heard somewhere that some big-shot celebrity did something similar for his daughter, just because she was dealing with some kind of illness or whatever...

Olivia Cook said:I hope I’m in the right spot here. Not really sure if this belongs in Psychology or maybe the Fringe section.

Anyway, my buddy and I have been going back and forth on something. We're wondering if it's actually possible—maybe through hypnosis, autosuggestion, or something else—to just switch off emotions? Like, to completely erase feelings toward everyone and everything (kind of like how the Vulcans are in ST 😬).
My friend thinks it's doable, though he can't really explain how, and I guess I'm more of a "maybe not" kind of guy 🙂.

Cheers...

Wipe away emotions?

If you strip away someone's ability to feel, you've basically killed the human being inside them.

You could do it with chemistry... or through certain methods that some government agencies have used in the past and still use today.

Olivia Cook said:I hope I’m in the right spot here. Not really sure if this belongs in Psychology or maybe the Fringe section.

Anyway, my buddy and I have been going back and forth on something. We're wondering if it's actually possible—maybe through hypnosis, autosuggestion, or something else—to just switch off emotions? Like, to completely erase feelings toward everyone and everything (kind of like how the Vulcans are in ST 😬).
My friend thinks it's doable, though he can't really explain how, and I guess I'm more of a "maybe not" kind of guy 🙂.

Cheers...

If you don't mind me asking, why on earth would you want to shut down your feelings? You really have no idea how lucky you are to experience them... just like I've realized myself 🙂.
By the way, it is technically possible, no question about it...

If you ask me, I’d much rather they just scrap them entirely—they don't serve any actual purpose other than making my life unnecessarily difficult...😍 😲

Look, everyone goes through a phase in their life where they just feel completely lethargic, like all their emotions have been surgically removed. It’s actually a perfectly normal part of the process when you're building yourself into a real person. That said, there is definitely a way to achieve that state through hypnosis if you want to sustain it over a longer period, though honestly, you're probably more likely to pull that off using magic.

So, I caught Mr. Plečko on that "working lunch" show recently, and he was rambling about some REM-based method—supposedly for treating PTSD and grief. He even went as far as claiming there's scientific proof that you can actually communicate with the dead through this technique. It sounds incredibly sketchy to me. Apparently, his wife is a psychologist who completed some certification to practice this specific therapy, or whatever they call it. If anyone wants his email address to grill him further about this nonsense, shoot me a DM. I have an address for him, though I’m not entirely sure if it’s still active.