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A Personal BOOK REVIEW: How Emotions are Made by Lisa Feldman Barrett


5 stars
Highly highly recommend this book!
This book taught me so much about not only how emotions are made but how our environment and past experiences can affect the way that we perceive the world and, as a result, act on it. To be quite honest, I had a very essentialist view on perception and emotion before this. I had a habit of seeking specific brain regions that regulate certain emotions or concepts or behavior rather than viewing emotions as involving various regions and circuits within the complex system of the brain. I love how this book also links all of these findings and the theory of constructed emotion to areas that relate to ‘everyday life’ such as lifestyle, law and the way we view nonhuman animals. Understanding that we can shape the way that we predict our surroundings (and therefore the reactions we have) is a liberating thought. It reminds me to be mindful of the things that I am choosing to surround myself with and taking a step back and truly reflect on what it is that is happening to me (rather than blaming it on instinct or categorizing it to a common broad emotion concept)
It definitely had me overwhelmed as to the amount of uncertainty surrounding the science of emotion, but the author encourages curiosity rather than hopelessness within this uncertainty.
I will need to re-read this book a couple times in the future since it was quite information heavy, and now that I understand the overarching idea it might change the way that I interpret the information!

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