In sociological theory, the social process of regulating emotions has been described in terms of self-constraints and rationalization. In contrast, the loosening of emotional discipline in the 20th century represented itself as “informalization” of feeling rules. Present programs of emotional self-management, however, to be found in current concepts of work and business, as well as of consultation, training and therapy, point to the fact that the contrast of disciplining and informalization is blurring. In the wake of a market society, which seeks its economic yardsticks in personal efficiency as well as financial success, and which is culturally accompanied by processes of “subjectivation,” programs of self-management dedicated primarily to the cognitive triggering and strategic use of emotions are on the rise. But feelings are not just the object of subjective and social control. Rather, modern selfmanagement aims at the “optimization” of emotional experience and performance, for which Daniel Goleman’s popular concept of “Emotional Intelligence” is exemplary. Curiously, such programs of a modern emotionalizing in society and economics have the paradoxical effect of leading precisely to the “affective neutrality” they stood up against in the first place.