Signal Emotions System (SES): An Integrative Biopsychosocial Model of Emotional Regulation

This article presents the Signal Emotions System (SES) — an integrative biopsychosocial model of emotional regulation founded on a synthesis of eight scientific traditions: the neurobiology of emotions, polyvagal theory, theories of basic emotions, theories of needs, the psychoanalytic theory of defense mechanisms, the transactional analysis of parental injunctions, personality typology, and attachment theory. The original contribution of the Signal Emotions System (SES) comprises:– the Integrative Emotion-Need Model (IENM): thirteen basic emotions with unique needs, organized into six functional groups by autonomic profile (IENM Hexagon) and by need status;– seven signal emotions with a three-phase model of the emotional cycle (entry → unfolding → exit);– a system of combined emotions (more than 50 combinations) and blended states (more than 20);– twenty-two parental restrictive injunctions (an extension of the Gouldings' classification of injunctions), with a demarcation between signal emotions and the racket feelings of transactional analysis;– thirty-seven defense mechanisms systematized across three levels of defensive organization, with a justification of the early ontogeny of defenses (the "from the first emotion" principle);– a system of correspondences between components, relating personality types to their characteristic parental restrictive injunctions, defense mechanisms, signal emotion profile, blocked basic emotions, autonomic profile, and attachment style. The central formula of the Signal Emotions System (SES) describes not only the mechanism by which a signal emotion arises (the linear cascade: Need → Basic emotion → Activation of a parental restrictive injunction → Engagement of a defense mechanism → Blocking → Signal emotion), but also a closed, self-sustaining cycle: the signal emotion alters the neurochemical and autonomic profile, in consequence of which the person comes to experience as pressing not the need whose frustration gave rise to the emotion, but another need that is situationally plausible. The concept of the substitute need is introduced, extending Horney's conception of neurotic needs to all seven signal emotions. Therapy directed at the substitute need does not break the cycle; this accounts for the resistance of a number of conditions to treatment. The key proposition of the model is that signal emotions perform a predictive function. The model assumes that, when the signal is ignored, the condition becomes chronic and may pass into a clinically significant disorder in accordance with the principle of mechanism preservation: anxiety into the anxiety spectrum, helplessness into the depressive spectrum, agitation into the bipolar spectrum; correspondences are proposed for all seven signal emotions. This may serve as a basis for subsequent investigation of the possibilities of early diagnosis and prevention. The theoretical component (the Signal Emotions System, SES) and the practical component (Signal Emotions Therapy, SET) of the model are demarcated. Directions for empirical verification are presented.