The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness

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	• The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness Antonio Damasio Harvest Books, 2000 - 400 pages average customer review:based on 52 reviews view larger image
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A seminal work

I very seldom come across a book that is so groundbreaking in its content as to make me determined to fully understand what the author is trying to convey (even if it means rereading it three times!) Damasio's The Feeling of What Happens is an astonishing achievement and I believe that the science of consciousness has been vastly enriched with this contribution.

It may help you to know, however, that this is by no means light reading. Even with my medical background, I struggled to keep up, especially the first time round. It probably helps reading Descartes' Error first, but you also need oodles of persistence. But then no thoughtful person ever expected a serious text on the neural underpinnings of consciousness to read like pop psychology. That said, I do think that Damasio's style has eased the burden of understanding considerably. His text is rich with metaphors and examples and I don't believe that anything is beyond the grasp of the enthusiastic lay reader.

In a nutshell, if you put in the effort with this book, you will be richly rewarded. And, as the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine said: '... you will be ahead of the ruck by at least a decade.'

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An engaging discussion of consciousness

I found this book to be an engaging exploration of consciousness and the different parameters that define consciousness. The author spends a lot of time explaining how consciousness is defined in relationship to the relationship the person has to the world, but also in regard to biological systems, linguistics, etc. He also does an excellent job of distinguishing where emotions fit into consciousness.

On the other hand, his writing style is dense and sometimes hard to get through. I had to carefully reread some of his writing to really get the ideas he was trying to explain...so be prepared to do some slogging.

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The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness

This book is a must read for serious counseling professionals.The orchestra of feeling , emotion and thought that are part of our biological music is exciting to read and think about.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Widely praised for his innovative scientific thinking and elegant writing, Antonio Damasio achieves a new understanding of consciousness by asking-and answering-profound questions: How is it that we know what we know? How is it that our conscious and private minds have a sense of self? A gifted medical clinician with decades of caring for patients with brain damage, a great scientific thinker, and an extraordinary writer, Damasio offers a new understanding of the biological roots of consciousness and its role in survival. Damasio's work on feeling and emotion forever joins our minds and bodies, offering an arrestingly original way of understanding what it is to be human. After reading Damasio's landmark, Descartes' Error, Jonas Salk wrote, "You will never again look at yourself or another without wondering what goes on behind the eyes that so meet." As to The Feeling of What Happens, the New York Times wrote, "Unlike any other book here, it will change your experience of yourself."

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