Why am I passionate about this?
I’m a historian of emotions, science, and medicine, with more than a decade of experience in meddling in other scientific affairs, especially in the worlds of psychology and neuroscience. I’m fascinated by human emotions in part, at least, because I feel we’re living in a crude emotional age. I’ve worked in five different countries since gaining my PhD in 2005. In that time I’ve written or edited 14 books of historical non-fiction, as well as dozens of articles and reviews. You can freely read my work in Aeon or History Today. I live between Canada (my adopted country) and Finland, where I frequently lament the loss of my European citizenship.
Rob's book list on what your emotions are and where they come from
Why did Rob love this book?
There is a schism in psychology (actually, probably more than one) that I and others like me are trying to take advantage of. In general, the disagreements are hidden from public view in impenetrable academic papers. I love this book because it’s so visible and available to a general audience.
Feldman Barrett basically undermines all the prevailing core assumptions of basic emotions psychology, which are so pervasive that they tend to underwrite the Disneyfication of human emotional life (see, for example, Inside Out).
I don’t agree with everything Feldman Barrett says, but I greatly admire her for saying them in this format, for such a large audience. It has done wonders for shaking things up.
6 authors picked How Emotions Are Made as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
Preeminent psychologist Lisa Barrett lays out how the brain constructs emotions in a way that could revolutionize psychology, health care, the legal system, and our understanding of the human mind.
“Fascinating . . . A thought-provoking journey into emotion science.”—The 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…