Passion and Reason: Making Sense of Our Emotions

Rating:
Summary: The Thinking Person's Guide to feelings
Review: This is a comprehensive handbook and user guide to human emotions. It has the depth, rigor, and authority of an academic text and the accessibility of a self-help book. It unravels mysteries of human behavior that I wondered about for years.

The book begins with a grand tour of fifteen emotions. Each of these detailed tours begins with a case study followed by a description of the unique dramatic plot, the underlying assessment of personal goals, provocation, personal meaning, and coping strategies for each emotion. The logic underlying each emotion is analyzed. Subtle but useful distinctions are described between related emotions and between emotions and their synonyms. For example, the distinction between envy and jealousy, the difference between anxiety, fright, fear, and horror and the differentiation between embarrassment, shame, shyness, and humiliation is made clear.

A central theory of the book is that emotion and logic ("heart" and "head") cannot be separated. Each emotion begins with our appraisal of how we have been harmed or benefited in a certain way. After this appraisal, we choose a course of action. Knowing the logic of each emotion allows you to decipher peoples' emotional patterns and reconcile them with personal goals.

The book concludes with discussion of several practical implications. These include emotions and their relationship to stress and health as well as descriptions of psychotherapy approaches that can be helpful when coping fails.

I look forward to re-reading and studying this substantial book again and again.