Feeling as a Way of Knowing: A Practical Guide for Working with Emotional Experience

Cynthia Whissell is a psychology professor at Laurentian University.

In this book, Artz suggests that knowledge may be legitimately gained
through feeling as well as thinking, and that some people may prefer
this method of interacting with their environment. Faced with the same
piece of news, “thinkers” might find themselves analyzing it while
“feelers” might find themselves analyzing their own emotional
reaction to it.

Artz brings her extensive clinical experience to bear when she
discusses people’s problems with understanding their own methods of
gaining knowledge. She offers some suggestions, and a list of emotion
terms, to help readers activate their “feeling” abilities. She also
includes a diagnostic test that is descriptively valid and easy to
administer. This test is not intended to replace existing tests but
rather to allow individuals to engage in a process of self-discovery.

Feeling as a Way of Knowing would be an excellent supplementary text
for courses encompassing such topics as emotion, personality,
assessment, or counseling. The accompanying cartoons are illustrative,
to the point, and appealing.