Lisa Feldman Barrett: How Emotions Are Made

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Until recently, emotions were considered mere physical reflexes to experience. But research is gradually revealing that feelings are in fact complex responses to stimuli. Barrett, University Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Northeastern University, who has appointments at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital in Psychiatry and Radiology, is one of the leading experts in this new science of emotions. Her book outlines the developing theory of emotion as behavior constructed in the moment it occurs by the activation of diverse sectors of the brain, in tandem with prior learning. This is a major paradigm shift, Barrett shows, and she describes the practical ramifications not only for psychology, but for parenting, law enforcement, health care, national security, and much else.

[Video and text source: Politics and Prose YouTube channel]