[mbizzle88]

> As a logical, clear-thinking engineer, I recognize that if my wife is emotional and needs to vent, that the best way to improve her mental state is to listen and give emotional support and ask her if there's any way I can help. There's nothing illogical or non-intellectual about realizing that, it's just a matter of learning from experience.

In the context of the parent comment, providing emotional support for your wife is an emotional response, even if you decided to take that response for logical reasons. A logical response in this context would be ignoring the feelings your wife has and focussing on what can be done to solve the problem.