Planning with half a mind: Why planners resist emotion

Abstract

Planning aims to change people’s behavior, and success depends on understanding human motivation. However, Enlightenment culture discourages understanding emotional experiences central to human activity. Many social sciences and professions have given increased attention to emotional concerns, but most planners hold fast to a view that people think and act only rationally. This article shows why emotional understanding matters for planning, examines the nature of emotional experience, and describes how Enlightenment culture hinders comprehension. The article reviews studies of emotion in the social sciences and professions and contrasts them with a paucity of published interest in emotion in planning. The article interprets planners’ resistance to emotion in terms of the nature of professions and societal needs for order.

Keywords::

• emotion
• unconscious
• rationality
• irrational
• profession
• Enlightenment

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.