How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain by Lisa Feldman Barrett - Non Fiction - Paperback

Details. Condition: New. Format: Paperback. ISBN: 9781509837526. Publisher: Pan (Pan Macmillan). Age Range: Adult / General Readership. Overview. How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain is a groundbreaking work of popular psychology from neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett. This brand new paperback edition dismantles the long-held belief that emotions are hardwired, universal reactions, replacing it with a compelling theory: emotions are constructed by the brain in real time. Ideal for curious readers, students of psychology, educators, and anyone fascinated by how the mind truly works, this is one of the most influential science books of the decade.. About the Book. For centuries, the assumption has been that emotions such as fear, joy, and anger arise automatically from specific regions of the brain, triggered by the world around us. In How Emotions Are Made, Lisa Feldman Barrett draws on cutting-edge neuroscience to overturn this classical view. Instead, she argues that emotions are actively constructed by the brain each moment, using past experience, bodily sensation, and context to predict and categorise what we feel. This is not simply an academic exercise — Barrett shows how this understanding has profound real-world consequences, changing how we think about the justice system's treatment of "crimes of passion," how police officers assess threats, and how doctors diagnose illness. Written in an accessible style and grounded in decades of rigorous research, the book weaves together neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy without losing sight of the human experience at its centre, offering readers a genuinely new lens on one of the most fundamental aspects of being human. This paperback edition brings Barrett's acclaimed research to a wide audience in a durable format perfect for study or gifting.. Overturns outdated assumptions about emotions with rigorous, up-to-date neuroscience. Written in clear, accessible language for non-specialist readers.