How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain

I made more extensive notes for this book than any since my university days. So often did i need to get something straight in my mind, so often was i blown away, so often was i dazzled on topics far outside the scientific understanding of emotion.

This is a book that sets itself a big target - to revolutionise the understanding of emotion. I feel it hits the bulls-eye. Not only that, we also have an illuminating view of how science, history, politics, and society work in real life.

We are presented with the classic view, one we would all recognise from our day to day lives, one in-built to our societies, espoused by our luminaries, and assumed to be a fact. Emotions are distinct things inside of us, and can be controlled through rationality. Turns out they are not. The evidence is abundant on this point. There turns out to be no solid evidence of a single emotion network or trigger, rather, we are told they are contingent on culture, emergent, and belonging to the same class of concepts as money or laws. intriguing.

Following the deconstruction of the classical view, we are introduced to the constructive view, the How Emotions are Made from the title. This can be tough going at first, with the author switching between cutesy lay terms to hard science in a flash. We go through the ideas of body budgets, affective reality, the creation an use of concepts, a entire model of the brain/consciousness, and social reality. Emotions become a wrapping to help us react to situations felt in the body and predicted by the brain. They are constructed by us based on how our bodies feel combined with concepts we have picked up from out cultures. It becomes clear that different cultures have different emotions, certainly finer grained ones.

She does not say that illusions are made up, they are socially real, just like money or laws, real as long as more than a single person know what it means. Complicated and smart. This is labelled a superpower of humanity - and is exactly the same point that Yuval Noah Harari makes when he writes of the unique human ability to create shared fictions. Even if it turns out to not be 100% correct this really feels like the right path.

There are brilliant asides throughout the book. From different grades of anger in alternate languages, entire new emotions in Philippine tribes, to the fact that Russian's see two blues in the rainbow.

The final few chapters are clearly flagged as more speculative - yet the quality of the work is enhanced. We follow the application of the theory in several fields.

This includes a section on how best to master our emotions according to current evidence. Some of it is simple, yet is both effective and fits the theory - sleep well, eat well, work out, yoga - keeping your body budget in line. Some of it is more incisive, building the ability to re-categorise feelings, changing anxiety to anticipation for example. The book is excellent here on the social construction of the self, reminding me of the Ego Trick by Julian Baggini, and many Buddhist texts. Highlights the importance of the body as root of feeling of self.

There are excellent sections on common medical ailments, (chronic pain, anxiety, depression, Autism, the US opiate disaster), and a enlightening section on animals and emotion - and all help build out the theory, far better than current understanding. Could really help people in distress if worked on more.

There is a fabulous (and funny) section responding to an expected criticism - that this is a left leaning 'bleeding-heart' view of reality, this is shut right down, yes many of the issues we face are 'society's' fault, poverty trapping sections of society on the lower rungs, but she insists on the ultimate responsibility of each individual to surround themselves with the tools and concepts to progress, you are the architect of your own reality, bound but not fixed to a social reality. It matters how you treat others.

First rate popular science writing, a compelling narrative, some useful tips for normal people, some amusing is US focused anecdotes. I can understand other scientists of emotion picking holes or decrying aspects not covered in the book, but i assume the labs and journals are the place for these discussions. The author talks often about 'my' theory, and i can't comment if that tag is fully justified, similarly i am unsure just how rigid the classical view that is knocked out of the park is. However, as a lay reader and taken at face value, here we are shown a problem in current understanding, assumptions are methodically taken to pieces, and in its place a tentative but evidence backed theory is built out. It has the insight to power a revolution in understanding.