Expression begins where thinking ends, Albert Camus said, and we could add - and emotions begin. Indeed, the question of what expression is can be answered by psychology, art, and even genetic engineering. But the essence, the core of the word, is contained in one very expressive noun - extraordinary. Extremes of thoughts, movement, lifestyle, impulses, speed. Perhaps this is where we start.
What is expression?
The Latin word ex-pressio, that is, squeezing, squeezing, forcing, makes us look at a familiar concept from the other side. That is, literally the word expression meant the forcible evocation of any feelings and emotions.
Our dictionaries interpret this bright word differently and closer to the usual perception - expressiveness, sensuality, emotionality on the verge of exposing the personality.
But in fact, expression is a rather whimsical diagnosis, which is made in a certain cultural layer according to the parameters accepted in this society as the norm. Suppose there is nothing reprehensible for a Russian person in greeting his acquaintance, holding his hand in his own. For a true Briton, who was somehow not brought up on friendly physical contacts, such a gesture will look expressive, if not to say, abnormal.
Expression in Psychology
Psychology does not believe that expression is such a sensual-emotional behavioral manifestation, because a person, demonstrating himself, presents a significant part of his personality not in words or actions, but in his own appearance. The strength of feelings, our self-expression, based on a solid foundation of beliefs, habits, and “emotional blindness” (we visually evaluate others, but not ourselves), all this is postponed in the manner of dressing, wearing makeup, neatness or sloppy appearance.
An expressive person is present in everyone, because the synonyms of expression are raciness, juiciness, liveliness of nature, and there is not a single person who does not periodically experience a bright upsurge, strength, relief - everyone knows this feeling, rising from within from a hot wave. Only someone just needs to drink a cup of coffee to rise to the height of emotions, and someone needs to make an internal overcoming, to achieve recognition.
Expression in art
The most obvious and expressive manifestation of expression we find in art, whether it is an exciting picture, a violin concert or an incendiary dance. To evaluate a work as an example of expression, it is not necessary to go into analysis. If you feel a mental movement in yourself, then what caused it is expressive to one degree or another.
Theophanes the Greek with his “living” icons, Jerome Bosch, turning the mind over with an unprecedented horror of his paintings, are expressionists. Michael Flatley, almost forgotten King of Dances (Ireland), Isadora Duncan - expressionists. The era of expressionism is considered the flourishing of the Gothic trend in Western Europe, and now the creative fruits of the hi-tech trend have been awarded the same title.
Personality mirror
It is impossible to hide internal expression, because a person is not able to abandon his personality. An evil unsociable recluse will be able to change his true face to the mask of a good-natured “neighbor”, but not ten minutes later, as the sullenness begins to wade through a smile. This is the same as if a cripple suddenly begins to pretend to be healthy. Would they believe him?
What expression is and how it works is good to observe on revolutionary-minded people, energy generators and pendulums swinging the entire world around them. Their secret in the directed action of their spiritual upsurge is that they carry their spark with a confident understanding that it shines and warms, rather than bashfully hiding it under the floor. Therefore, the main synonym for expression, which comes first, is brightness. A bright personality is always expressive, because the nakedness of feelings is a mirror - everyone who looks into it will see the essence. In the mirror, covered with complexes and prejudices, drawn in by a web, nobody wants to look.
Universal language
The lexical meaning of expression is an expressive, vivid manifestation of human emotions and personal qualities.
The expression of a healthy person is always adaptive to a society forming a cultural cell. Laughter is a normal reaction to a joke, and it will be understood by both a resident of Africa and an Australian settler. But the duration of the natural reaction to the joke, the strength of its manifestation and the nature of additional gestures are governed by the principles admissible in a particular environment. This applies to other examples of the universal language of expressivity: crying, sadness, joy, delight, fear.
The rules regulated by society do not seem very restrictive, but only because each of us is brought up in the concepts of what is permissible and what is not. People whose inner world does not fit into the established framework are true expressionists.
Gene expression
What is gene expression, you can understand only knowing the approximate structure of the cell and the information that it carries.
Anyone is a puzzle of tightly fitted cells, and all of them within 50 trillion. Inside each cell there is a nucleus, but in itself it is only a shell for a valuable set of DNA that forms a chain around the concentrate of our personality - the chromosome. Information on the chromosome is information about the color of our eyes, about the shape of nails, about dry or oily skin. This information is not merged into a single reservoir, but strictly divided into bricks - genes. If you just imagine that the set of each cell contains 20 thousand genes, then it becomes clear the complexity of each individual individual. We simply must be individuals, possessing such a spectrum of contrasts.
Like humans, each of the genes has its own responsibility, which it “takes out” or not. Someone regularly makes processing, while someone modestly keeps silent aside. And this is, in fact, gene expression - the nature of their activity. This can not be called a deviation - it is impossible for everyone to work at the same speed, and invariably some of the genes will have high expression, and some will be low. This is neither good nor bad; it is an absolute norm.
The science that studies gene expression, genetic engineering, sets itself the tasks that we know except in science fiction films. One of the goals assigned to the study of gene expression is eternal youth.