Were Nupur Sharma and Her Detractors Victims of Emotional Hijacking?

The country has been rocked in recent times by fiery debates in the media leading to protests and violence. The highest edifices in the Indian polity have also been blamed for the ‘loose tongue phenomenon’.

In everyday parlance, one encounters people who let loose their barrage of verses at the simplest provocation and we call them ‘muhfat’ in Hindi, ‘phatkal’ in Marathi. Such utterances that are provocative, irrational and coloured with resentment and hate have reasons in science and not always in religion or belief systems.

Daniel Goleman coined the term ‘emotional hijacking’ to describe situations when the brain’s emotional processing centre, the amygdala, takes over the reasoning process. Was Nupur Sharma a victim of ‘emotional hijacking’ after being provoked continuously by Tasleem Rehmani? This is a million-dollar question that can only be answered by those involved in the heated argument.

What is the Amygdala?

The amygdala is an almond-shaped structure situated in the mid-brain, forming part of the limbic system. This structure is known as the emotional hub of the human brain and plays a role in fear and the fight or flight response (Olivia Guy Evans 2021).

Amygdala was largely useful in the stone age where the homo sapiens were constantly protecting themselves from danger. During ‘emotional hijacking’ the response is exaggerated and billion times stronger to the actual stimulus. For example, a mother reacts very harshly to a small misdemeanour of her teenage son on a bad day.

What is Emotional Hijacking?

a) A sensation is received through the various sensory organs (eyes, mouth, nose and ears). This then travels to the thalamus a part of the brain

b) The signals are then managed by the thalamus that serves as the traffic police and directs the impulse to the prefrontal cortex (centre for reasoning) to be processed

c) The cortex analyses and gives meaning to the signal, which is then sent to the amygdala for an emotional or physical response to the interpreted signal.

In a situation of emotional hijacking, the amygdaloid bypasses the cortex and sends it straight to the amygdaloid for a disastrous response based on the past information stored. Thinking is bypassed then

This reminds me of repeat offenders who bark in abundance periodically at miniature stimuluses in workplaces and families. They may be intellectually endowed, but the repeated hijacks hinder their working relationships, progress and leads to frustration. Most of them in their 40s then become very cynical and blame the world for their failures and seldom look within to analyse and correct themselves.

Is Emotional Hijacking Nature or Nurture?

When Jarnail Singh, a journalist, flung a shoe at P Chidambaram in April 2009, many felt that he had lost it and suffered from a momentary loss of reason. But then, how does one differentiate whether it was a premeditated act or a sudden hijack? The questions I would ask is whether the gentleman was prone to such acts in the past.

If the answer is no, then the hijack was probably not a consequence of a personality trait. Was it planned such as the stone-throwing incidents in Kashmir is what needs assessment and evaluation.

Snapping frequently at any one can be a consequence of imitation and modelling too. For example, a 12-year-old boy was rude to relatives coming to his house and would throw angry tantrums at guests. On delving deep, I found that he learnt it from his dad who made it a habit and the boy enjoyed it.

This was largely to gain attention and assert one’s identity that may be detrimental in the future. This is not an emotional hijack but a learned behaviour that mimics a hijack. After counselling the father and the child, this behaviour stopped. Many adults boast about their reactions and brutal repartees in life and this is also reinforced through praise and adulation by people around. “S/he spares no one” is the common refrain. Such people slowly get isolated.

A senior politician known for his original ‘chaiwala’ remark years ago was repeatedly brutal and violent with his words, thereby making me believe that he suffered from serial emotional hijacking. He repeated his rants too in a neighbouring country inimical to India. The gentleman was helpless and just could not stop. Many who retort strongly often are unaware of their behaviours and the brain process involved in the same.

There is some evidence to believe that emotional hijacking and empathy can also run in some families and are mediated by genes.

Stress & Emotional Hijacking

Research states that stress and depression can increase the size of the amygdaloid (The Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience: 2020). In our mental health practice, we see many who sleep less and are facing serious stressors snap more often. They also feel guilty later. Such behaviours also vanish after treatment.

In a world where 1/8 are mentally-ill (WHO 2022) and in India where 1/7 suffer from a mental illness (2019: Ministry of Health), we see outbursts on streets, workplaces, legislative assemblies and in families. One major side effect of globalization that leads to rapid pace of life is emotional hijacking.

Were Nupur Sharma and the reactionary fundamentalists of all colours so stressed that their vocal cords failed to obey the prefrontal cortex of their brains is a question we need to delve on. Is the phrase ‘Sar Tan Se Juda’ a religious belief only or an emotional hijack provoked by religious leaders? This can be a serious research query.

TV Panellists & Emotional Hijacking

Many panellists on television who hurl invectives, taunts and abuses do not suffer from emotional hijacking. The discussion formats tempt them and actually nudge them towards such behaviours that necessarily feed the requirements of the show and help build a higher TRP.

Primitive emotions displayed here attract a million eyeballs and eardrums in a cauldron of hatred on a petri dish where the virus of hostility thrives. Many such actors actually falsely believe that they are formidable debaters and can vanquish any argument of their opponents. They forget that they themselves are slowly destroying their own souls and are slowly becoming dehumanized just like the encounter specialists of yester years.

Treatment of Emotional Hijacking

a) Identify the triggers and put down the entire event down on a piece of paper with all the feelings, thoughts, bodily sensations and behaviours that followed. Analyse them and note down the healthy behaviours one could have indulged in. This helps quarantine the episode and learn from them

b) Yog, Vipassana and meditative practices helps build awareness that in turn helps watch the mind screen for automatic thoughts, feelings and sensations that are devastating following a trigger. Slowly one becomes a witness to these phenomena and is able to prevent the sudden hijacking. This allows the external sensations to reach the prefrontal cortex for a desired healthy response.

c) Healthy lifestyles that include good sleep, exercise, apt diet and work life balance helps build emotional wealth and prevents hijacking in most of the circumstances. Tackling stress and mental illness such as depression prevents emotional disasters and catastrophes.

Dr Harish Shetty is a psychiatrist who has been involved in training professionals from many disciplines, including elected representatives of political parties, for 25 years. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the stand of this publication.

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