One of the world’s leading experts on mind and brain takes us on an expedition that reveals a new view of what makes us who we are.Humans have long thought of their bodies and minds as separate spheres of existence. The body is physical—the source of aches and pains. But the mind is mental; it perceives, remembers, believes, feels, and imagines. Although modern science has largely eliminated this mind-body dualism, people still tend to imagine their minds as separa...

Humans have long thought of their bodies and minds as separate spheres of existence. The body is physical—the source of aches and pains. But the mind is mental; it perceives, remembers, believes, feels, and imagines. Although modern science has largely eliminated this mind-body dualism, people still tend to imagine their minds as separate from their physical being. Even in research, the notion of the “self” as somehow distinct from the rest of the organism persists.Joseph LeDoux ar...

This volume presents cutting-edge theory and research on emotions as constructed events rather than fixed, essential entities. It provides a thorough introduction to the assumptions, hypotheses, and scientific methods that embody psychological constructionist approaches. Leading scholars examine the neurobiological, cognitive/perceptual, and social processes that give rise to the experiences Western cultures call sadness, anger, fear, and so on. The book explores such compelling questions ...

The “happiness agenda” is a worldwide movement that claims that happiness is the highest good, happiness can be measured, and public policy should promote happiness. Against Happiness is a thorough and powerful critique of this program, revealing the flaws of its concept of happiness and advocating a renewed focus on equality and justice.Written by an interdisciplinary team of authors, this book provides both theoretical and empirical analysis of the limitations of the hap...

The “happiness agenda” is a worldwide movement that claims that happiness is the highest good, happiness can be measured, and public policy should promote happiness. Against Happiness is a thorough and powerful critique of this program, revealing the flaws of its concept of happiness and advocating a renewed focus on equality and justice.Written by an interdisciplinary team of authors, this book provides both theoretical and empirical analysis of the limitations of the hap...

In this book we are trying to illuminate the persistent and nag ging questions of how mind, life, and the essence of being relate to brain mechanisms. We do that not because we have a commit ment to bear witness to the boring issue of reductionism but be cause we want to know more about what it's all about. How, in deed, does the brain work? How does it allow us to love, hate, see, cry, suffer, and ultimately understand Kepler's laws? We try to uncover clues to these staggering questions b...

**Longlisted for the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing AwardA leading neuroscientist offers a history of the evolution of the brain from unicellular organisms to the complexity of animals and human beings today**Renowned neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux digs into the natural history of life on earth to provide a new perspective on the similarities between us and our ancestors in deep time. This page-turning survey of the whole of terrestrial evolution sheds new light on ...

I disturbi di paura e ansia rappresentano un problema psichiatrico molto diffuso ma anche chi è considerato mentalmente e fisicamente sano può soffrire temporaneamente di terrori e preoccupazioni invalidanti. Joseph LeDoux, all’avanguardia nella ricerca in questo campo, prende in esame questi disturbi, le loro origini e le scoperte che possono aiutare chi ne soffre a tornare alla normalità. La premessa fondamentale è che paura e ansia sono esperienze che costruiamo cognitivamente. Dato che...

**“[Anxious] helps to explain and prevent the kinds of debilitating anxieties all of us face in this increasingly stressful world.” —Daniel J. Levitin, author of The Organized Mind and This Is Your Brain On MusicA comprehensive and accessible exploration of anxiety, from a leading neuroscientist and the author of Synaptic Self**Collectively, anxiety disorders are our most prevalent psychiatric problem, affecting about forty million adults...

In 1996 Joseph LeDoux's The Emotional Brain presented a revelatory examination of the biological bases of our emotions and memories. Now, the world-renowned expert on the brain has produced with a groundbreaking work that tells a more profound story: how the little spaces between the neurons—the brain's synapses—are the channels through which we think, act, imagine, feel, and remember. Synapses encode the essence of personality, enabling each of us to function as a distinc...

Una domanda anima da sempre gli studi di LeDoux: come il senso di identità scaturisce dai neuroni, pur mutando di continuo il mondo circostante e i circuiti neuronali? Gli studi sui pazienti dal cervello diviso, svolti a metà degli anni Settanta, lo avevano indotto a pensare che l’io non fosse un’entità fissa ma una “narrazione” che intessiamo per dare un senso al mondo. Da allora, ne ha cercato le conferme nel cervello, studiando le emozioni e la memoria. Lo ha fatto anche ricostruendo, i...

What happens in our brains to make us feel fear, love, hate, anger, joy? Do we control our emotions, or do they control us? Do animals have emotions? How can traumatic experiences in early childhood influence adult behavior, even though we have no conscious memory of them? In The Emotional Brain, Joseph LeDoux investigates the origins of human emotions and explains that many exist as part of complex neural systems that evolved to enable us to survive.One of the principal r...