Dean Burnett was born and raised in Pontycymer, a working-class former mining village in the South Wales valleys, which explains his strong Welsh accent. After losing his dad, a neuroscientist goes on a journey of discovery into where our emotions come from, what purpose they serve, and why they make us feel the way they do. I am aware of what is involved and have spent time in anatomy rooms, that's not my problem but as someone who facilitated her father's donation and who is signed up, along with other loved ones, to donate herself, eventually I'd rather not think those dealing with us dislike it so much. Through this book we explore emotions from a range of aspects that I found intriguing, illuminating and thought provoking. Dean, your point is legitimate whether you're a scientist or not if it's accurate in itself, please stop mentioning your credentials.

For those who are interested in emotion, there's absolutely nothing new or presented in a unique way. Hij zit zelf waarschijnlijk al zo diep in de stof dat het daardoor moeilijk is het in ‘Jip en Janneke’-taal uit te leggen. It is not the author‘s fault that a confessional tone does not appeal to me, but surely it is not too much to ask, even of a scientist, that s/he should master the construction of unreal sentences and spare us a string of misplaced „likes“? the author could not make up his mind whether to address teenagers who are sifting through their emotions, or adults with an enquiring mind. Emotions have always been about change, and because emotions happen throughout our brains, they have the capacity to affect us instantly.

Got a weird feeling that's it's author's therapy, a self-healing process of (re)connecting with semi-broken emotional-inner-workings, triggered by author's father passing. With this intimacy and vulnerability in mind, the book explores the sometimes confusing, inconsistent and contradictory emotional expressions at the death of a parent. My one real quibble with it is that I would have preferred him not to describe his previous employment in the anatomy department as being awful, repeatedly. Very up-close and personal, this book examines the role of emotions in numerous facets of life, ranging from the most fundamental biological processes to cutting-edge technology.

His previous books, The Idiot Brain and The Happy Brain , were international bestsellers published in over twenty-five countries. Dean Burnett’s fifth book is an insightful and fascinating exploration of our emotions, how they work and how they enhance all of our lives (and why it doesn’t always feel that way). At the cost of some emotional budget burn sympathising with Dean Burnett, you will get neuroscience musings on a bit wide set of subjects collectively touching on our emotional systems/drivers.And here’s another good read to debunk the brain vs heart misconception apart from introducing you to the principles of emotions. The author demonstrates his gift for making the complex workings of the human brain engaging and accessible and bravely lays bare his own experience of the powerful emotion of grief and the process of grieving. What I didn’t expect though, was to find woven through this well written popular science book such a heartfelt love letter to the authors father, wife and family. Dean uses his recent experience to describe his own profound emotions and thoughts and also references his much loved family. I found myself dipping into chapters rather than reading through in novel-esque fashion; to that end, the segment I found hardest to swallow concerned emotional relationships.

His previous books, The Idiot Brain and The Happy Brain, were international bestsellers published in over twenty-five countries. In this case it is singularly true because the reason for the derailment of the book originally envisaged has produced a different* and better book. It’s emotions that allow us to sort through the never ending stream of sensory input and retrospectively assign meaning and weight to individual memories. Dean Burnett is a neuroscientist and psychiatry lecturer at the Centre for Medical Education at Cardiff University and is the author of the Guardian’s most-read science blog, Brain Flapping.Het had dus een goed boek kunnen zijn over een interessant onderwerp als het op een toegankelijkere en duidelijkere manier was uitgewerkt. Combining expert analysis, brilliant humour and powerful insights into the grieving process, Dean uncovers how, far from holding us back, our emotions make us who we are.