Vulcans and Emotional Avoidance: Star Trek Psychology

In honor of the upcoming DragonCon, I’m gonna let my inner Trekkie out of the box for one blog post. Even if you don’t know Star Trek very well, you should be able to follow this.

Most people are familiar with Spock from Star Trek: The Original Series (the one who says “Live long and prosper”). Spock is half Vulcan and half human. The Vulcans are known for their extreme emotional control and reliance and rational thought and logic. Spock is often teased for having trouble tapping into his ‘human side’ (e.g., emotional, impulsive, passionate).

Star Trek: The Next Generation features an episode focused on Spock’s father, Sarek (Season 3, Episode 23), in which we learn that the Vulcans actually used to have incredibly strong, overwhelming emotions. Because their emotional volatility was harmful to them, they developed a protective shield of emotional overcontrol. Unfortunately, their emotional avoidance also hurts them; for example, Sarek is unable to express his strong love to his son.

How many times have you heard this story in people you know? Maybe a young boy was very emotionally sensitive and being bullied, so he decided to develop a “tough guy” persona, but then it kept him from being emotionally vulnerable with his wife later in life. Perhaps a woman who felt constantly rejected by others decided to just stick to herself, but then regretted having no close friendships.

Emotional and experiential avoidance are two psychology concepts that are associated with almost every mental health condition and might do a better job describing people's presenting concerns than our DSM-5 labels. Attempting to avoid or suppress strong negative emotions 1) generally leads to greater distress eventually and 2) can lead to an inability to experience and express positive emotions. Avoidance can come in so many forms, both passive and active: drinking alcohol to suppress a bad mood, not attending a party due to concern that you look bad, taking a Xanax to prepare for a flight, not telling your best friend that something they said hurt your feelings, worrying about a situation you can’t control.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) targets experiential avoidance and references it more directly; I would argue that cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), exposure therapy, and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) also address this concept. Avoiding avoidance and moving toward values is essential in creating a life worth living that is filled with both joys and sorrows. In DBT, learning to integrate “reasonable mind” and “emotional mind” into a wise mind is an essential skill.

What does this all mean for Spock and the Vulcans? It’s okay to have strong emotions, and emotions are little messengers that give us very useful information, as we learned in Inside Out. Learning to experience strong emotions and then still make a values-based decision as to how we wish to behave in a moment is the ultimate goal. Neither being emotionally numbed or experiencing a constant state of happiness is ideal; flexibility and responsiveness to each situation is necessary.

Thoughts? Comment below!

I hope this does my Trekkies and the ultimate Star Trek psychologist, Deanna Troi, proud.