Why should I beleive that 'emotion' is separate from and controlling of the self?
wow. now you believe the "self" has control. example, "self X" is addicted to heroin. do they have control over the emotions (withdrawal symptoms & addiction) that heroin creates in their body? when the wife you love leaves you, you have control over the heartbreak & betrayal emotion that arises?
when you & your wife are at church, believing you are god's chosen people & then a hot hum dinger sexy babe walks past, is your "self" in control of the emotional sexual attraction that arises?
Saul of Tarsus had that verse: "I do want I don't want to do and don't do what I want to do" (something like that. of course, poor Saul seemed stuck in believing the "self" was the creator of emotion, which is why he was stuck in bondage). At least Saul could see the "self" often could not control.
How does that prove that the emotion of 'hunger' (if hunger is an emotion)preceded the self in anyway?
when a child is born, does it have a "self"? when a child is born, does it think & say: "Hi, mummy, I am Johnny & you are my mummy named Sally".
before a man meets his wife & has children, is the self-concept or self-identity of that man the same as after he met the woman that became his wife and result him in becoming a father & a husband?
when my wife married me, did she marry the same "self" that existed when I was 4 years old?
OK,people's psyches are formed by their upbringing, agreed.
