Abstract
Emotional debt. The human brain is capable of reacting with emotional responses to stimuli coming both from the external world and from internal representations produced by imagination. These virtual images can elicit perfectly real emotions with physiological effects in the organism. A typical result of these emotions is that the subject commits him/herself to obtain or avoid the object that evoked the emotion. Such commitment is described here as 'emotional debt' Emotional debt involves the ove. restimation of an illusory reality, bringing about maladjusted behaviors in the present and giving rise in the long term to moral suffering and chronic stress. Canceling an emotional debt is a real possibility that produces therapeutic effects (as is the case in forgiveness). It is even possible to avoid any emotional debt at all, which implies an important change (and a further developmental stage) in the functioning of the human mind.
