The EMOTIONAL BRAIN: The Mysterious Underpinnings of Emotional Life

"This appears to be an excellent study about human emotions but I am having a very difficult time plowing through this book. This is some of the most high-brow reading I have done for some time. This is not entertaining and should not be purchased for that purpose. I hope to be able to finish this book but at the rate I am going, I'm not sure how soon that might occur. This is a well-written, well-researched book but perhaps it takes a special brain to assimilate all of this information. I can see how this book might be mandatory reading at university level for those majoring in fields such as psychology or even psychiatry. For the lay person, this is challenging to read in my opinion."
~ Written on 2008-10-28

"To understand the "NOW" questions re addictions, therapist should be informed re "emotional life" and neurotransmitters--in the Limbic Brain System. Most health care is moving to the cellular level.

DNA information is increasing -- but not at the time this book was written."
~ Written on 2008-10-08

"As a mental health practitioner, I am constantly reminded that much of what people present as emotional difficulties are more accurately described as neurological difficulties. LeDoux's writing is articulate, timely, and extremely useful clinically. When I first heard about this work when I was in grad school, it literally changed the way I thought about such common mental illnesses as depression and (most of all) anxiety. I would be MUCH less successful in my treatment of these disorders now if I did not have this information. All mental health clinicians need to know about the neurology of emotion. I don't know how else you can help clients understand what is going on to create the emotions that they experience."
~ Written on 2008-09-28

"Having read LeDoux's other work, I was pleased with this work, much as I enjoyed his previous work. In this book LeDoux explores the role of emotions in neuroscience. He does a fairly thorough job of explaining the history of the study of emotions through both psychology and neuroscience. I found his arguments about the limbic system persuasive, and his analysis of fear and also the memory intriguing.

If there's one complaint I have, it's that I wish he'd focused on other emotions besides fear. He never really explains, for instance, where the emotion of happiness might be located. There may not be studies focused on that, but while he makes some interesting arguments for multiple systems of emotions, since his focus is only on fear, it doesn't make his argument as persuasive as it could be."
~ Written on 2008-06-19

"What makes this book a good read? Primarily, the answer has to be that the subject is important and interesting for anybody who has for once wondered 'why was I not my real self when faced with fear/anxiety?' or 'Just if I could have held my emotions under control there?' Secondly, the area of work seems to be in its primitive stage. And accordingly, there are not many alternate books to be devoured if somebody is interested in this subject.

As far as the author - Joseph LeDoux -is concerned, I like his way of approaching the whole problem of making progress in understanding emotional brain. Not using the mental tools he has been handed by academics he had the intelligence to go where his research took him. Having said that, I would like to add, that the whole account could have been presented in a better way. Some could argue, he has done decent job at explaining complexities in simple terms for any layman to understand. I agree. Just that Daniel Gilbert's excellent work at that - in Stumbling on Happiness - has created an anchor in my mind.

Overall, I would not hesitate in recommending this book to anybody who wants to understand the emotional aspect of our mind.
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~ Written on 2008-05-08