summary ofHow Emotions Are MadeBook by Lisa Feldman Barrett, PhD

first KEY POINT

The classical view of emotion, and why it doesn’t fit into today’s world

For centuries we have believed in the “classical view of emotion” in terms of how all human emotions are created. This view tells us that we are born with a set of emotions that are triggered by specific situations in our lives. When we come into contact with a trigger, our brain’s neurons fire, and specific emotional responses are created. These responses are saved as a “fingerprint,” something that is ingrained within our very being.Lisa Feldman Barrett, PhD, never bought into the classical standpoint; she prefers seeking more individualistic answers for every human being. Beginning her studies as a clinical psychologist in the 1980s, she decided to study where emotions came from and found many surprising results along the way. One study really piqued her interest and pushed her to study further; this was a study of patients suffering from either anxiety or depression.

Upon asking them questions, she found that neither set of subjects could accurately describe which condition they had — anxiety or depression — by what it felt like. We know that anxiety and depression are two different conditions, but each has different feelings attached. From this, she discovered “emotional granularity,” the ability for some people to recognize emotions better than others.

People respond to different emotions in different ways, so how can emotions be something we’re born with and have a set of fingerprint responses to? Dr. Barrett set off on a journey to discover that perhaps emotions are far more individual in how they’re triggered than most people believe. The following chapters will reveal more about her discoveries.