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    How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain
    How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain
    How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain
    Audiobook14 hours

    How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain

    Written by Lisa Feldman Barrett

    Narrated by Cassandra Campbell

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    “Fascinating . . . A thought-provoking journey into emotion science.” — Wall Street Journal

    “A singular book, remarkable for the freshness of its ideas and the boldness and clarity with which they are presented.” — Scientific American

    “A brilliant and original book on the science of emotion, by the deepest thinker about this topic since Darwin.” — Daniel Gilbert, best-selling author of Stumbling on Happiness

    The science of emotion is in the midst of a revolution on par with the discovery of relativity in physics and natural selection in biology. Leading the charge is psychologist and neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett, whose research overturns the long-standing belief that emotions are automatic, universal, and hardwired in different brain regions. Instead, Barrett shows, we construct each instance of emotion through a unique interplay of brain, body, and culture. A lucid report from the cutting edge of emotion science, How Emotions Are Made reveals the profound real-world consequences of this breakthrough for everything from neuroscience and medicine to the legal system and even national security, laying bare the immense implications of our latest and most intimate scientific revolution.

    “Mind-blowing.” — Elle

    “Chock-full of startling, science-backed findings . . . An entertaining and engaging read. ” — Forbes

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateMar 7, 2017
    ISBN9781469292076
    Author

    Lisa Feldman Barrett

    LISA FELDMAN BARRETT, PhD, is a University Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Northeastern University. She received a National Institutes of Health Director’s Pioneer Award for her groundbreaking research on emotion in the brain, and is an elected member of the Royal Society of Canada. Barrett is the author of How Emotions are Made and Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain.

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    Reviews for How Emotions Are Made

    4.5/5

    440 ratings33 reviews

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      This is an enlightening book. Initially I thought the view of emotions to be presented here was going to provide a slight perspective shift - a useful way of understanding emotions. Well, it goes way, way further than that. This book changes everything. Maybe.
      At the centre of this title, by Lisa Feldman Barret, is the theory of constructed emotions. According to this theory, our brains use past experiences organised as concepts to guide actions and give our sensations meaning. From this seemingly simple idea the author goes on to reveal how our emotions colour how we perceive reality and how this affects everything from our health, laws and who we are.
      So what of it? What can we learn from this view? The lesson here is that we are responsible for our own concepts and hence our own view of reality. Think about that. We have the power and responsibility, as individuals, to create better and healthier lives for ourselves and other people, beyond our current circumstances. How?
      This may sound crazy but: eat well, do some regular exercise, try yoga, meditate, take walks, get a plant maybe, watch a movie and read good books...like this one. The idea is that the separation between our mental and physical lives is porous. Our brains are embodied beyond the skull and affect our experiences and that of others.
      The book also does a good job of poking holes in a lot of popular science publications about how the brain is organised and how it works. These ideas are hard to kill because they are so pervasive and they seem so intuitive as to be obvious to most. Things are a tad bit more complex than we would like to admit/can handle.
      I do think this is a revolutionary theory that can change everything if even a fraction of the claims and speculations in the book are correct. Fantastic and mind expanding read.

      There’s a lot of speculation in here, the author makes that abundantly clear, but the implications are massive. I can see how applying the insights here can have a major impact on how we approach our lives and circumstances and how we approach AI and the future of humanity.

      4 people found this helpful

    • 5/5
      A ground-breaking book that has created a serious paradigm shift in the way I view, experience, and manage my own emotions--not to mention the emotions of others. Some of the concepts presented are so new, that it takes some time and thought to wrap you mind around them, but in the end, I found that little lightbulb turn on over and over as I listened. Great book!

      2 people found this helpful

    • 5/5
      It’s more informative and genuinely worthy reading. I loved it.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      An extremely interesting theory about emotion construction. I came away a believer in this theory.
      Some portions of the narrative tended to be repetitive and the emphasis of certain points were belabored.
      Overall, a very interesting read (listen).

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      This book changed my brain wiring
      Thank you for all this research, validates my existence

      1 person found this helpful

    • 1/5
      I feel as though the key points in this book could be summarised within 30 minutes, the supporting evidence was very long winded.

      I’m glad to have finished it and regret having been recommended it.

      lost most of my respect for the author when they got into their political views.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      best book about emotions
      fresh neuroscience
      many interesting cases
      bravo

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      I totally recommend. Though a bit complex but worth the read. Will have a second go at it to fully grasp the concepts.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Explains the diversity of emotions based on brain ability, culture & experience.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      One of the best or maybe the best book I’ever read on the subject so far.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Interesting read, it had a slow start but it's worth it
    • 4/5
      A bit redundant at points but great material to talk about the reconstruction of emotions and the physiology behind them
    • 3/5
      The concepts are valid and well stated, but tiresome repetition put me off.
    • 5/5
      One of the most important books of this century - exploring the area that is marred by 20th century view of psychology (=folk psychology with fancy nomenclature and loads and loads of ether), sold and perpetuated by culture, law and, sadly, most of social science today. I do hope the author gets the recognition she deserves❤️
    • 5/5
      i hear this everyday, i love it. love love love
    • 5/5
      Excellent book! Fascinating Concepts which were well written and well documented.
    • 4/5
      An interesting and easy-to-read book on the concept of emotion. The author does a good job of using anecdotes and story to illustrate emotional concepts and neurological research.
    • 5/5
      I love the gradual exploration and contrast between the classical view of emotion versus the novel view. Some theories proposed by the author actually are compatible with the principle of the machine learning algorithms, which sounds very fascinating to me. I am very interested in the connection between physical budget imbalance and depression, anxiety, chronic pain, etc, and this could be a revolutionary idea for new treatment plans. Looking forward to the updates on that!
    • 5/5
      Changed my life by offering a foundational philosophical alternative to Platonism / Essentialism.
    • 5/5
      Excellent analysis. I was particularly interested in her analysis of how the classical theory of emotions leads to cultural bias in the justice system.
    • 5/5
      A scientist who cuts throughout the bad science we have acquired from age where scientific discovery was limited by ideology, religious fears and fake experiments, and unfortunately collusion by some in the field of psychology and sociology.

      This book offers framework on how emotions are made is more effective and can change how one can work with his/her emotions.

      Ideally it also changes what is tested and developed as a theory in academic and business services.
    • 5/5
      Look no further! The true masterpiece in emotions. Mind blowing!!
    • 5/5
      Very well explained; no matter form what field or society you are, it is worth reading/listening. Good examples, but there are some concepts thet you should know beforehand or search for them meanwhile. It is even more significant if you are in the fields of psychology (like I am), pedagosy, sociology or have something to do with law. For law, the most relevant chapter is "Emotins and the law", nr. 11. If you just want to know about your pet's emotions , read chapter 12.
    • 5/5
      Wow, what great ideas and so well explained. A great and interesting read.
    • 5/5
      Paradigm shifting in its eloquent description of the mechanism of emotion as constructed by the minds interaction with the world. Hearkens back to Kant and vygotsky in many suggestions
    • 5/5
      Prepare for your mind to be blown.
      Turns conventional wisdom on its head and then inside out.
    • 5/5
      Very elaborate explanation of how our brain processes what we call emotions. Also wonderful to use these concepts in therapy.
    • 3/5
      3.5 stars if I could have. Rounded down instead of up because of the length - not a huge book but it could have been shorter easily.

      What I liked was some good ideas about emotions being to a large part socially constructed things, not simple modules like "despair" or "jealousy" that all humans share. In general she made very good points against essentialism in psychology and in all areas, and I really agree about that.

      I didn't like the writing style much. I couldn't have done a better job myself of course, so I feel a little bad sniping. But I'm sure she's more of a scientist than a writer.
    • 2/5
      Even if you don't take her positive argument, Feldman Barrett's deconstruction of an essentialist approach to emotions--a platonic ideal of emotions that are universally shared by every person and culture--is absolutely convincing. Mental states depicted as the result of a stochastic cascade of interactions in your body provide a far more useful picture of emotions than our relatively lazy narrative of emotions.

      Where it falls apart is when the author ventures further afield from her expertise on distinguishing essentialism from more modern takes on emotion and begins applying this in real world examples. It's not so much that she's wrong about the importance of emotions to jurisprudence and so on, so much as its a case of not being an expert in those fields too. It's like having an expert fishing hook designer tell you how to fish. It seems like it would make sense to have a deep understanding of a part of the activity, but it really doesn't mean such an expert has the necessary contextual knowledge of the applied field to tell you anything profound.

      The kicker for me was near the end of the book when Feldman Barrett refers to Steven Pinker's characteristic dismissal of politically correct objections to his statements about black poverty and related issues. It's just inane to say that such a statement makes relative sense within Pjnker's constructed reality--it falls into a rhetorical trap to leave context out of the issue and thereby throw a soft ball on anything that depends on history to make sense of (i.e. racism and most other social and institutional concerns that this research would apply to).
    • 5/5
      You read a lot of books, but sometimes one comes along that changes the way you look at the world . And in this case also yourself. Lucid, clear and funny.