Part One, The Mechanics of Mood: The Adversity

Under the heading of 'The Mechanics of Mood' Hoover addresses 6 sub-parts*:

The Adversity

The Alarm

The Emotions

The Compulsions [a]

The Defenses (sic) [a]

The Psychotherapies

THE ADVERSITY

Hoover's general point in this sub-part is that emotional irritation is caused by some adversity, some event that matters to us. 

We may read this as a trivial statement, a truism. But in the world of therapy it is rejected by the major cognitive-based therapies. These therapies argue that events do not cause human emotions but that human interpretation of events causes emotional reactions. 

Contrariwise, non-cognitive psychotherapeutic theory states that moods arise when something we meet is unacceptable or not okay for us. 

These adversities occur when things, events, or states we value are 'lost, damaged, upset . . .  foiled' (p. 31) or are threatened; adversities occur in actions outside our control and acts we ourselves commit both deliberately or inadvertently. Hoover challenges the reader to upset himself by something that he accepts as perfectly all right.

     Degree of Irritation

Although the adversity is the sole cause of the upset in the individual, the degree of the annoyance and irritation is dependent on both the severity of the adversity but also on the person's tolerance as well.

And tolerance level is related to both the number and nature of adversities already being endured and to one's physiological state. However, Hoover quickly asserts that one's tolerance is not the cause of emotional unrest (as Albert Ellis had asserted).

To summarise: the intensity of an irritation arises from how much the event matters, its significance; and the level of one's tolerance. The latter is understood as 'the number and size of the adversities one already faces' (p. 35); and 'one's physiological state' (p. 35). (One's physiological state could be affected by medication, alcohol and drugs, by hormonal levels, and by certain disorders such as diabetes.)

Therapy usually concerns those moods that arise out of contexts where 'enduring values' and particular 'inalterable consequences' (p. 38) occur. Therefore, quick fixes are not common because of this robust context.

Some Comments
Although Hoover calls his system 'non-cognitive' he is obviously not using that word in the sense that cognition (thinking, imagining and willing) are not involved in emotional upset. It is clear from his model that cognition is involved when we consider the words 'matter to us' about adversities. To know that something matters to us we have to judge it as such and this calls for cognition.

Second, I wonder if he could improve his model by adding to it what I call psychic preparedness (Martin Seligman): the human ability to learn reactions to certain threats, losses, poison foods, etc. almost instantaneously. This preparedness to learn emotional reactions and moods incidentally makes changing these reactions very difficult; but the preparedness dynamic is oriented to survival.

Next Time: The Alarm

*Confusing at least for me is, that in the book's table of contents, all the sub-parts are given as above as if they are all of equal weight. However, in the text they are all fully capitalised except for those above with [a] after them.