The Emotional Brain

Joseph LeDoux, one of the researchers profiled in Daniel Goleman's Emotional Intelligence, investigates where human emotions come from, arguing that many are part of complex neural systems that evolved for survival. Emotions, he says, begin in the brain at a deeper level than conscious feelings: the brain can detect danger before fear is felt, and it starts bodily responses such as a pounding heart, sweaty palms and tense muscles before any awareness of the feeling. Emotional responses are wired into the brain's circuitry, but what triggers them is learned through experience. LeDoux links phobias and post-traumatic stress disorder to faults in how emotion systems learn and remember, and argues that understanding these mechanisms matters for treating emotional disorders.

Jordan B. Peterson included it among the suggested readings for Maps of Meaning.