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ABSTRACT
Meta-emotion is feeling about feeling. Meta-emotion of occupation is feeling about feeling while doing with meaning, a holistic concept that relates to the psychobiology of man (as expressed by Meyer). This paper builds the concept of meta-emotion of occupation, its emotional dimension, by sharing the meta-emotion strategies employed to draft this paper. Deepening the discussion, meta-emotion is defined and a summary timeline and short history of meta-emotion is presented, showing how the facets of meta-emotion are predicated upon a true paradigm shift in understanding how the brain functions. Building on that foundation, the meta-emotion of occupation is defined, with concomitant illustrative examples. I argue that the need to identify and use emotional processing during engagement in meaningful occupation begins to ‘fill the crack’ left in our disciplinary study of occupation when emotion is not considered. Drawing on recent neuroscience research and philosophy to provide an understanding of how the brain constructs reality, this paper addresses how meta-emotion of occupation is a reflective process wherein the object of reflection is an emotion. Schön’s theory of reflective practice is adapted for use as reflection-on-action and reflection-in-action during engagement in occupation, and illustrated through forms of meta-emotion of occupation. The concept of wissen is introduced as the collective knowledge and understanding of meta-emotion of occupation. This concept allows for an acronym related to Meta-emotion of Occupation with Wissen or MeOW. Given the prevalence of others doing in-depth description of occupations, emotion and reflection need to be incorporated into our theory. To that end, research to delineate the meta-emotion of occupation is summarized, with guiding questions proposed.
Acknowledgments
It is with regret that I note the passing of Dr. Jim Hinojosa, who was a dear colleague and writing partner for many years. He will be sorely missed. Support for this paper was provided, in part, by the A. Watson Armour Presidential Endowment from Rush University.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Please indulge this adaptation of Descartes’s famous phrase cogito, ergo sum for teaching purposes.
2 The italics inserted into Pierce’s (Citation2003) ‘experiences of pleasure and productivity and restoration’ emphasize this concept is added to Pierce’s original work.