Psychiatrist Says Emotions Remain Beyond AI's Reach

"The emotions we experience daily follow consistent patterns like a clock. Understanding the mechanism by which our body's rhythms generate emotions allows us to manage them rather than be controlled by them."

Dr. Kang Do-hyung, a psychiatrist and clinic director, shared this insight in his book "Emotion Clock" (Sam & Parkers).

During his tenure as a professor at Seoul National University's Department of Psychiatry, Kang gained recognition for publishing the world's first study in the official journal of the American Pain Society showing that patients with complex regional pain syndrome have difficulty recognizing others' emotions.

"This is an era when the balance between reason and emotion has been most severely disrupted," he said. "People are not taking adequate care of their emotions."

He argues that advances in cognitive science and artificial intelligence have pushed the importance of emotions to the periphery. Modern society views emotional expression as immature and teaches that negative emotions should be suppressed.

"Emotions are a 'survival system' essential for sustaining life," Kang said. "Regardless of whether they are positive or negative, all emotions are signals. Ignoring those signals eventually leads to problems."

Ten Internal Springs Determine the Emotion Clock

However, properly recognizing emotions is more difficult than expected.

"Among countless unconscious emotions, only some rise to conscious awareness, allowing us to recognize 'I'm sad, angry, or happy,'" he explained. "It's like the ocean—countless creatures live beneath the surface, but we can only confirm their existence when fish rise above the water."

The concept he developed to capture emotions is the "emotion clock." In his book, Kang explains that ten sensory organs serve as the "springs" that determine the emotion clock's time.

The gut functions as both a digestive organ and a "biochemical engine" producing neurotransmitters like serotonin. The heart is closely connected to emotional stability. The skin, the sensory organ with the broadest contact with the external world, serves as a gateway for receiving and transmitting emotional signals. The pineal gland, amygdala, hippocampus, brainstem, insula, and gonads also directly or indirectly influence emotions.

The spine plays a crucial role as well. Spending a day hunched over causes emotions to contract accordingly. Simply maintaining good posture can relieve sympathetic nervous system tension and change one's emotional state.

Kang emphasizes routines because caring for the "springs" that generate emotions is essential. This is why he prescribes routines including sun exposure, tapping the lower abdomen, stretching, and half-body baths to patients suffering from depression.

Emotions Are Proof of Humanity—A Compass Toward a Better Life

Meditation is also important. It is not a technique for controlling the mind but a means of becoming aware of the body's rhythms.

Many people read self-help books and repeat positive thoughts to change their emotions. However, Kang says emotions are the most sophisticated sensory system humans evolved for survival and the core of what makes us human. Managing and understanding emotions rather than suppressing them leads to a healthier life.

"I'd call this the 'golden age of sociopaths,'" he said. "People pursue cold rationality and efficiency while excluding emotions, and empathy or anxiety is seen as weakness. But emotions are proof that we are human and a compass that determines life's direction. When we examine and respect our emotions, life moves in a better direction."