Humans experience seven emotions and six desires, known as the seven emotions, which include joy, anger, worry, thought, sadness, fear, and shock. These seven emotions are related to our internal organs: joy harms the heart, anger harms the liver, thought harms the spleen, worry harms the lungs, and fear harms the kidneys. Any emotion that persists for too long can damage the body.The seven emotions, namely joy, anger, worry, thought, sadness, fear, and shock, are normal emotional activities that arise as physiological and psychological responses of the internal organs to changes in the internal and external environment. Generally, they do not cause illness. However, sudden, intense, or prolonged emotional stimuli that exceed the body’s normal physiological and psychological adaptability can damage the essence and qi of the internal organs, leading to dysfunction. If the body’s righteous qi is weak, the essence and qi of the internal organs may also be deficient, resulting in a low capacity to adapt to emotional stimuli, which can lead to the onset of disease or exacerbate existing conditions. In this case, the seven emotions become a causative factor, referred to as “internal injury from the seven emotions.”
Relationship Between the Seven Emotions and the Essence of the Internal Organs
The emotional activities of the human body are closely related to the internal organs. The essence and qi of the five organs provide the material basis for the generation and maintenance of emotional activities. The “Su Wen: On the Correspondence of Yin and Yang” states: “Humans have five organs that transform into five qi, giving rise to joy, anger, sadness, worry, and fear.” The five organs store essence, which transforms into qi, and the movement of qi responds to external environmental changes, resulting in emotional activities. Therefore, the essence and qi of the five organs can produce corresponding emotional activities. As stated in the “Su Wen: On the Correspondence of Yin and Yang”: the liver corresponds to anger, the heart to joy, the spleen to thought, the lungs to worry, and the kidneys to fear. Thus, if the tissues of the internal organs or the qi and blood undergo pathological changes, it will affect a person’s emotions. As stated in the “Su Wen: On Regulating the Menstrual Cycle”: “When blood is abundant, there is anger; when it is deficient, there is fear.” The “Ling Shu: On the Spirit” states: “When liver qi is deficient, there is fear; when it is abundant, there is anger… When heart qi is deficient, there is sadness; when it is abundant, there is unending laughter.” Therefore, the seven emotions are closely related to the qi and blood of the internal organs.
Characteristics of Disease Caused by Internal Injury from the Seven Emotions
Direct Injury to the Internal Organs
1. The seven emotions damage the corresponding organs.The seven emotions correspond to the five organs, and excessive or insufficient emotional responses can damage the corresponding organs. For example, joy corresponds to the heart; excessive joy harms the heart; anger corresponds to the liver; excessive anger harms the liver; thought corresponds to the spleen; excessive thinking harms the spleen; sadness corresponds to the lungs; excessive sadness harms the lungs; fear corresponds to the kidneys; excessive fear harms the kidneys.
2. The seven emotions primarily affect the spirit.Excessive emotional responses can lead to illness, primarily affecting the spirit and causing abnormal psychological reactions and mental states. The “Classics of Diseases: Emotional Disturbances” explains: “Although each of the five organs has its corresponding emotions, all originate from the heart.”
3. Intertwined emotions can harm the heart, liver, and spleen.Internal injury from the seven emotions can result from a single emotion or a combination of two or more emotions. Since the heart, liver, and spleen play important roles in physiological and psychological activities, internal emotional injuries most easily damage these three organs.
4. Easily injures organs with latent diseases.Latent diseases refer to conditions that have occurred but do not present obvious clinical symptoms. The organs with latent diseases are those where the latent disease resides. Internal injury from the seven emotions not only frequently damages the heart, liver, and spleen but also easily injures organs with latent diseases. For example, patients who have previously suffered from chest obstruction, true heart pain, diarrhea, or headaches may have their original clinical symptoms reappear upon emotional stimuli, even if their clinical symptoms have disappeared.
Impact on the Qi Mechanism of the Internal Organs
Internal injury from emotions affects the movement of qi in the internal organs, leading to abnormal ascension and descent of qi, resulting in corresponding clinical manifestations. As stated in the “Su Wen: On Pain”: “… all diseases arise from qi; anger causes qi to rise, joy causes qi to relax, sadness causes qi to dissipate, fear causes qi to descend… shock causes qi to become chaotic… thought causes qi to stagnate.”
Common Emotional Disorders
Emotional disorders refer to diseases related to emotional stimuli, characterized by abnormal emotional expressions. These include: ① diseases triggered by emotional stimuli, such as depression, mania, and insanity; ② diseases induced by emotional stimuli, such as chest obstruction, true heart pain, and dizziness (hypertension); ③ other diseases caused by different reasons but exhibiting abnormal emotional expressions, such as diabetes, malignant tumors, and chronic liver and gallbladder diseases, which often have abnormal emotional manifestations and whose conditions change with emotional fluctuations.
Impact of Changes in the Seven Emotions on Disease
Changes in the seven emotions have two effects on disease: one is beneficial for recovery. Positive and optimistic emotions, with appropriate emotional responses, such as expressing anger when angry and sadness when sad, without excessive anger or despair, can facilitate improvement or even recovery from the disease. The second is to exacerbate the condition. Negative emotions, pessimism, or abnormal fluctuations in the seven emotions can worsen or aggravate the disease. Understanding the dual impact of emotional activities on disease is practically significant for grasping the development and changes in the condition and for implementing comprehensive and correct treatment.The above article introduces the relationship between the seven emotions and the internal organs. It is normal for humans to have emotions, but no emotion should persist for too long; even great joy should be controlled.Traditional Chinese Medicine studies the laws of human life; it is not merely about studying patients and diseases, which is quite different from Western medicine. TCM often places humans within two circles. The first circle is the natural circle. The “Huangdi Neijing” states, “Avoid the virtual evil and the wind at the right time.” For example, in spring, summer, autumn, and winter, TCM often emphasizes that when wind, cold, heat, dampness, dryness, or fire are excessive or untimely, they are referred to as “six evils” or “six pathogens.” When humans cannot coordinate with the natural world, diseases arise, which is the first cause of disease.The second circle is society. What does this circle discuss? It discusses the relationship between the seven emotions of joy, anger, worry, thought, sadness, fear, and shock and human life and health. TCM has a saying in health preservation: “Calmness and emptiness lead to the true qi.” This means that when you are in a very calm state, your qi and blood will circulate normally. This normal circulation is an important function for maintaining life activities. Conversely, when your emotions undergo abnormal changes, they can disrupt the circulation of qi and blood, leading to disease.
1. The liver governs anger; if the liver is not well, one is prone to anger.
Many women are particularly prone to anger, especially around their menstrual periods. Why? Because women are primarily governed by blood and the liver is their innate organ. When menstruation approaches, blood descends, and qi rises; at this time, the balance of qi and blood is disrupted, leading to excess qi and thus fire, which makes them prone to anger. Therefore, women should pay attention to regulating their emotions before and during menstruation, avoiding excessive anger and gloom. Both excessive anger and gloom are not in line with normal physiological states, and over time, they can lead to disease.
In the clinic, I often tell women that if you argue with your husband, you must tell him to let you cry it out before he leaves. Don’t let the anger remain half-expressed; if he leaves while you are still angry, the anger will fester inside you, leading to heat. If you cry, what happens? As we mentioned, sadness is related to the lungs. When you cry, lung qi becomes vigorous, which helps to calm liver qi. In TCM, the lungs and liver correspond to the five elements of metal and wood, which have a mutually restraining relationship. When lung qi is vigorous, liver qi calms down. You can try this: when you feel particularly gloomy, find a place where no one is around and cry it out; afterward, you will feel much better.
We also see many patients with liver diseases who are particularly prone to anger. Why? Because the liver governs anger, and the liver channel inherently has heat, so they easily become angry. Therefore, when you feel particularly troubled and angry for no reason, you need TCM to help you adjust. This liver is not the same as what Western medicine refers to as the liver; it is not about having hepatitis, but rather that your emotional state is problematic. This requires an adjustment process. We know that many diseases transition from quantitative changes to qualitative changes. When the changes are quantitative, they may not be detectable; you may go to a Western doctor who says you are fine. For example, some people feel particularly uncomfortable after getting angry, experiencing headaches and pressure in the head. When they go to the hospital, the Western doctor says everything is normal. But you still feel uncomfortable; if you take some herbs to calm the liver and regulate the qi, it will help.
2. The heart governs joy; excessive joy disperses qi and should not be overindulged.
The heart governs joy, which is happiness. We all know that we say the heart blooms with joy, not the liver. We also see many elderly patients with heart problems who, when their children return home, feel particularly happy and laugh heartily, only to pass away. This is because excessive joy disperses heart qi. While joy is a good thing, excessive joy may not be beneficial.
3. The spleen governs thought; excessive worry harms the spleen and stomach.
The spleen governs thought. “Thought” refers to excessive worry. People who worry excessively will have problems with their spleen and stomach. Those who frequently use their brains tend to have poor spleen and stomach function. Why? Because we all know that we need to eat every day, and after eating, the qi and blood go to the stomach to aid digestion. If at this time, your blood does not go to the stomach but instead stays in the brain, over time, the spleen and stomach function will be affected.For example, many long-distance drivers have stomach problems. Why? Because of their occupational habits, as soon as they sit in the driver’s seat, blood naturally flows to the brain. Over time, you can imagine that their blood is always going to the brain, while the food they eat does not get digested properly. Eventually, this leads to diseases such as gastric ulcers and gastric prolapse. Therefore, TCM states that the relationship between thought and the spleen and stomach is that excessive worry harms the spleen, leading to qi stagnation.
4. The lungs govern sadness; excessive sadness harms the lungs.
The lungs govern sadness. Everyone has read “Dream of the Red Chamber”; you can see that Lin Daiyu must have lung problems, otherwise, she wouldn’t cry endlessly. Frequent crying and tearing are certainly related to the lungs. Recently, I treated an elderly gentleman with lung cancer who said to me, “Doctor, I don’t know why, but I feel like crying every time I see you.” I said, “This is because you have a problem with your lungs, as the lungs are directly related to the emotion of sadness.”
5. The kidneys govern fear; fear disperses kidney qi.
The kidneys govern fear, which is directly related to the kidneys. In “Romance of the Three Kingdoms,” when Zhang Fei shouted on Changban Bridge, he scared a person next to Cao Cao to death. I think that person must have had weak kidney qi. Fear causes qi to descend; there is a saying among the people that someone was so scared they lost control of their bowels. Why does this happen? Because the kidneys control urination. When a person is excessively fearful, their kidney qi disperses, and the kidney’s ability to hold is weakened, leading to incontinence.
Therefore, TCM states that the changes in emotions such as joy, anger, worry, thought, sadness, fear, and shock are closely related to the five organs. In fact, when we read historical novels, we see many such examples. For instance, why did Wang Xifeng fall ill? “Calculating too cleverly led to her demise.” She was always scheming against others, and in the end, heaven punished her. Lin Daiyu cried every day, and eventually, her tuberculosis developed. In “Romance of the Three Kingdoms,” we see that Zhou Yu, so young, died because of jealousy and imbalance in his heart, always feeling that Zhuge Liang was smarter than him. He was not killed by Zhuge Liang but rather by his own emotions.