The Emotional Mind

This book develops an original control theory of the emotions and related affective states, providing new perspectives on how the mind works as a whole. Discussing pains and pleasures, moods and behaviours, and character and personality, the book will be important for readers interested in the philosophy and cognitive science of emotion.

This longawaited book by a pioneer in brain research offers a new model of our emotions- their origins, their power, and their malleability. For more than thirty years, Richard Davidson has been at the forefront of brain research. Now he gives us an entirely new model for understanding our emotions, as well as practical strategies we can use to change them. Davidson has discovered that personality is composed of six basic emotional "styles," including resilience, self-awareness, and attention. Our emotional fingerprint results from where on the continuum of each style we fall. He explains the brain chemistry that underlies each style in order to give us a new model of the emotional brain, one that will even go so far as to affect the way we treat conditions like autism and depression. And, finally, he provides strategies we can use to change our own brains and emotions-if that is what we want to do. Written with bestselling author Sharon Begley, this original and exciting book gives us a new and useful way to look at ourselves, develop a sense of well-being, and live more meaningful lives.

In Unlocking the Emotional Brain, authors Ecker, Ticic, and Hulley equip readers to carry out focused, empathic therapy using the potent process of memory reconsolidation, the recently discovered and only known process for actually unlocking emotional memory at the synaptic level. The Routledge classic edition includes a new preface from the authors describing the book’s widespread impact on psychotherapy since its initial publication. Emotional memory's tenacity is the familiar bane of therapists, and researchers had long believed that emotional memory forms indelible learning. Reconsolidation has overturned these views. It allows new learning to truly nullify, not just suppress, the deep, intensely problematic emotional learnings that form, outside of awareness, during childhood or in later tribulations and generate most of the symptoms that bring people to therapy. Readers will learn methods that precisely eliminate unwanted, ingrained emotional responses—whether moods, behaviors, or thought patterns—causing no loss of ordinary narrative memory, while restoring clients' well-being. Numerous case examples show the versatile use of this process in AEDP, coherence therapy, EFT, EMDR, and IPNB.

We all have our own ways of handling stressful situations without letting emotions get the best of us, but some ways of coping work better than others. Short-term fixes that help us avoid or numb our emotions may temporarily alleviate sadness and anger, but can also end up causing anxiety, depression, chronic anger, and even physical health problems. If you struggle with overwhelming emotions and feel trapped by unhealthy patterns, this workbook is your ticket out. Mind and Emotions is a revolutionary universal treatment program for all emotional disorders that helps you discover which of the seven problematic coping styles is keeping you trapped in a cycle of emotional pain. Instead of working on difficulties like anxiety, anger, shame, and depression one by one, you’ll treat the root of all your emotional suffering at once. Drawing on evidence-based skills from cognitive behavioral therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, and dialectical behavior therapy, this workbook offers all the techniques you need to manage unwelcome feelings in effective and productive ways. Learn and practice the most effective coping skills: Clarifying and acting on your core values Mindfulness and acceptance Detaching from negative thoughts Self-soothing and relaxation exercises Assertiveness and interpersonal skills Gradually facing your strong emotions This book has been awarded The Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies Self-Help Seal of Merit — an award bestowed on outstanding self-help books that are consistent with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) principles and that incorporate scientifically tested strategies for overcoming mental health difficulties.

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 researchers profiled in Daniel Goleman's Emotional Intelligence, LeDoux is a leading authority in the field of neural science. In this provocative book, he explores the brain mechanisms underlying our emotions -- mechanisms that are only now being revealed.

This highly innovative new book reconsiders the structure of basic emotions, the self and the mind. It clinically covers mental disorders, therapeutic interventions, defense mechanisms, consciousness and personality and results in a comprehensive discussion of human responses to the environmental crisis. For openers, a novel psychodynamic model of happiness, sadness, fear and anger is presented that captures their object relational features. It offers a look through the eyes of these specific emotions and delineates how they influence the interaction with other persons. As regulation of the emotional state is the core task of the self, dysregulation can lead to mental disorders. Clinical cases of post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder and depression are discussed, using the model to outline the emotional turbulence underneath. Finally, the elaborated theory is used to analyse personal responses to the environmental crisis and political strategies that capitalise on them. This book will appeal to scholars, psychotherapists and psychiatrists with an interest in emotions and who wish to challenge their own implicit theory of emotion with an explicit new model. It will also be of interest for academic researchers and professionals in fields where emotional processes play a pivotal role.

This book deals with the results of theoretical and ex perimental studies of the emotions which my colleagues and I carried out over the last two decades. An interest in the psychology of emotions prompted us to undertake an analysis of the creative legacy of K. S. Stanislavsky. A result of this analysis was the book, The Method of K. s. StanisZavsky and the PhysioZogy of Emotions, written in 1955-1956 and published by the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in 1962. I am grateful to the first reader and critic of the manuscript, Leon Abgarovich Orbeli. In 1960, having transferred to the Institute of Higher Nervous Activ ity and Neurophysiology of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, I had the opportunity to conduct experiments on prob lems that had interested me for a long time. In close scien tific association with Peter Mikhailovich Ershov, director and teacher of theater, I began a systematic study of the in voluntary and electrophysiological shifts in actors during voluntary production of various emotional states. Here comparatively quickly we became convinced that the fruitfulness of such studies rests on an absence of any kind of developed, systematic, and sound generaZ theory of the emotions of man and the higher mammals. We will illustrate our difficulties if only with one example. We had frequently read of the so-called "emotional memory.

We’ve all been told that thinking rationally is the key to success. But at the cutting edge of science, researchers are discovering that feeling is every bit as important as thinking. You make hundreds of decisions every day, from what to eat for breakfast to how you should invest, and not one of those decisions would be possible without emotion. It has long been said that thinking and feeling are separate and opposing forces in our behavior. But as Leonard Mlodinow, the best-selling author of Subliminal, tells us, extraordinary advances in psychology and neuroscience have proven that emotions are as critical to our well-being as thinking. How can you connect better with others? How can you make sense of your frustration, fear, and anxiety? What can you do to live a happier life? The answers lie in understanding your emotions. Journeying from the labs of pioneering scientists to real-world scenarios that have flirted with disaster, Mlodinow shows us how our emotions can help, why they sometimes hurt, and what we can learn in both instances. Using deep insights into our evolution and biology, Mlodinow gives us the tools to understand our emotions better and to maximize their benefits. Told with his characteristic clarity and fascinating stories, Emotional explores the new science of feelings and offers us an essential guide to making the most of one of nature’s greatest gifts.