How Emotions Are Made
The Secret Life of the Brain
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4.1 • 9 Ratings
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- £5.99
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
How Emotions Are Made did what all great books do. It took a subject I thought I understood and turned my understanding upside down' - Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point
When you feel anxious, angry, happy, or surprised, what's really going on inside of you?
Uncover fascinating insights into the human mind with How Emotions Are Made by Lisa Feldman Barrett, a pioneer in neuroscience and psychology. This profound book will dismantle and reconstruct your understanding of your own emotions.
The world perceives our emotions as automatic and reactive, a response to the world around us. But How Emotions Are Made poses a compelling new perspective, suggesting emotions aren't universally pre-installed, rather they are unique psychological experiences constructed through our personal history, physiology, and environment.
This new view of emotions has serious implications:
- when judges issue lesser sentences for crimes of passion
- when police officers fire at threatening suspects
- when doctors choose between one diagnosis and another
They're all, in some way, relying on the ancient assumption that emotions are hardwired into our brains and bodies. Revising that conception of emotion isn't just good science, Barrett shows; it's vital to our well-being and the health of society itself.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Psychologist and neuroscientist Barrett painstakingly attempts to refute traditional thinking about human emotions as portrayed in the popular media, such as the TV show Lie To Me and Oscar-winning movie Inside Out. She argues that emotions aren't a "fixed component of our biological nature," but rather are constructed in our minds based on predictions. Emotions take form from how they are perceived, Barrett writes, and moreover, they take different forms in different cultures. Her ideas make intuitive sense and are convincing, though her presentation is often slow going as she painstakingly dissects every conceivable counterargument. Some of her ideas are, as she admits, speculative, though "informed by data." The book includes possible implications of constructed emotions, Barrett's prescriptions for emotional health "eating healthfully, exercising, and getting enough sleep," among others and an investigation into whether animals experience emotions. Most startling is Barrett's suggestion that chronic pain, stress, anxiety, and autism might be caused by errors in predicted, constructed emotions. The book is a challenging read and will offer the most rewards to researchers already familiar with the longstanding and apparently still unresolved arguments about what emotions are.
