Important new information about emotions!

[JanAtheCPA]

This is a new show from NPR's Invisibilia, which is all about the invisible workings of the human brain
(I bolded what I think is the key concept):

In the first episode of its new season, NPR’s Invisibilia podcast tackles the complicated and misunderstood world of emotions. Researcher Lisa Feldman Barrett says they aren’t inborn — that they’re the result of your brain interpreting past events in anticipation of future ones. Cognitive behavioral therapy and other ways of cultivating positive emotions all rely on rejiggering that root mechanism, she says.
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I've listened to Part 1, which I guess I should warn might be disturbing to sensitive individuals, or anyone who has suffered a trauma similar to the one in the episode. On the other hand, I might also suggest that it's those individuals who really need to understand this information - and learn how to face it and get past it.*

You can subscribe to their podcast or just listen online: http://www.npr.org/podcasts/510307/invisibilia (Invisibilia)


* a completely non-qualified opinion from a tax accountant

 

[MindBodyPT]

This was a great episode, I heard it too! I actually just started reading the book How Emotions Are Made by Dr. Barrett that is mentioned in the show. It's a fascinating read, and makes me question a lot of things I previously thought about emotion and the brain. Highly recommend it.

 

[richard_lt]

I am halfway to listening to Barrett's book. Fascinating theories on emotions. So many things make more sense now.

 

[clarinetpath]

I could not access the NPR Podcast but I found a more recent one:

What she said sounds very nice, empowering, creates a sense of safety, etc. In that link above, an interview from only 2 months ago, advance to time index 1:05:45. 1 hour 5 minutes and 45 seconds. She says "I'm a migraine sufferer. I'm in pain." She has migraines headaches.

Now this comment may sound hostile or unfairly critical but it is a very serious question. This is a distinguished University professor, an expert on the emotions, who appears to have a lot of useful information to convey. Yet she does not know something so profound and basic as the cause of migraine headaches, which we know by our own personal experience are caused by emotional phenomena. This begs the questions: what else doesn't she know? How can we trust what she's saying as accurate? In all that she says, which sounds reassuring and uplifting, what important parts of it are utterly wrong?

 

[clarinetpath]

Here's another one by her, it's interesting too.

Even if she doesn't know about migraines, she knows some things worth learning.