How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain

How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain is a 2017 book by Lisa Feldman Barrett, an American neuroscientist and professor. Based on her decades of research in brain function and emotion, Barrett argues that emotions aren’t universally felt or perceived but are instead constructed by the brain’s predictive thinking processes and based on previous experiences, external stimuli, bodily functions, and taught concepts. Her argument, which she calls the “theory of constructed emotion,” refutes the classical view of emotion, which contends that certain brain regions support specific emotional reactions and are triggered automatically by certain events and shared universally throughout all cultures. Barrett posits that our understanding of emotion can have far-reaching moral and legal consequences, and as such she thinks the theory of constructed emotion deserves consideration by scientists, lawmakers, parents, teachers, and laypeople, who she hopes will accept and implement it for society’s benefit.

This guide refers to the Kindle edition of the book.

Summary

The book begins with an introduction that provides a brief history of the science of emotion. Barrett emphasizes that over a 2,000-year period, Western culture’s interpretation of emotion has remained relatively unchanged. She laments the common misconceptions of emotion, including the idea that different brain regions are dedicated to rational thought and emotional reactions—and that they’re “built-in from birth” (108) and triggered by external events. Chapter 1 reflects on Barrett’s years-long research to identify “fingerprints” for emotions in humans by studying facial expressions, bodily signals, and brain imaging. These studies failed to identify any clear, universal “fingerprints” in the face, brain, or body that corresponded to certain emotions. The author emphasizes that these studies demonstrated the wide variety of expressions and physical reactions that can combine to create the same emotional feeling in a person.

In Chapter 2, Barrett argues that the brain constructs emotions, which she calls “emotion concepts,” based on past experiences and present circumstances. She views humans as active constructors of their own emotions rather than passive reactors whose emotions “happen” to them. She claims that while all humans share the ability to create emotion concepts, how they experience and perceive emotion varies greatly based on genetics, personal experiences, and cultural socialization.

Chapter 3 looks critically at psychological studies that purported to show evidence of a universal experience and understanding of emotion. Barrett argues that many of these studies were biased toward the classical view in that they provided multiple-choice answers to participants, or failed to consider the many ways emotion words could translate from one language into another. She illustrates her point by inviting consideration of a photo in which a woman appears to be screaming in terror, later revealing that she was, in fact, joyously celebrating. Barrett thus shows that perceiving others’ emotions is highly contextual—and no reliable evidence suggests that people can universally and accurately identify others’ feelings.

In Chapter 4, the author explores how feelings originate and introduces interoception—the brain’s ability to process external and internal stimuli. Interoception supports survival, as it helps us generate predictive thinking about our experiences so that we understand each event’s meaning and can decide how to react. In addition, interoception manages our “body budgets,” or the brain’s ability to direct nutrients and hormones around the body as needed. Barrett argues that our interoceptive network is crucial to creating emotion concepts, which predictive thinking constructs. She claims that emotion concepts aren’t always the result of external stimuli either, since our interoceptive network can also assign emotional meaning to bodily functions.

Barrett uses Chapter 5 to discuss how the human brain is wired to categorize information and how it uses this instinct to form emotion concepts. This process begins during infancy and continues through childhood, as children’s brains catalog different sensations and experiences into emotion categories with the help of the words they learn from their culture. Barrett argues that these emotion concepts vary significantly and depend on context. In Chapter 6, the author expands her discussion of emotions’ origins by explaining how the brain’s control networks function in tandem with our interoceptive networks to generate hundreds of predictive thoughts per second. These “concept cascades” include emotions, which feel automatically triggered to us since humans aren’t consciously aware of the brain’s predictive work.

In Chapter 7, Barrett links emotion to social reality, shifting her focus to the influence of culture and language on developing emotion concepts. She argues that human brains are wired for social culture, which in turn influences brain development by helping us invent and apply emotion concepts. Associating certain words with sensations and behaviors generates concepts such as “sadness” and “joy.” Cultures around the world teach a diversity of emotion concepts, and Barrett argues that without learning the word labels and associations, it’s difficult to feel and perceive another culture’s particular emotion concepts that don’t exist in one’s own society.

Chapter 8 examines traditional views of human nature and critiques the essentialist perspective on human emotion that the classical view has encouraged. She argues that many studies mistakenly associated brain regions with specific functions and misled people into believing that their brains are merely reactive rather than constructive. She reiterates society’s great influence on the brain’s development and the perception of the world and self, noting, “It takes more than one brain to create a mind” (154).

In Chapters 9 and 10, Barrett presents her research and recommendations on managing emotional reactions and mental health. She strongly emphasizes the connection between emotional experiences and bodily health, even arguing that chronic pain and mental illness may be caused by body budget imbalances that trigger mood disorders. To strengthen mental health and enjoy positive emotions, Barrett recommends healthy eating, frequent exercise, meditation, yoga, and increasing emotional awareness and granularity.

Chapter 11 transitions into Barrett’s analysis of how her neuroscience research might be applied in the legal system, which she argues is tainted by outdated, essentialist thinking about the brain. She refutes the notion that people are helpless to control their emotional reactions and argues that defenses such as “crimes of passion” and “stand your ground” laws shouldn’t be allowed.

The author devotes Chapter 12 to considering whether animals feel emotion. She concludes that while all animals must experience affect, or the ability to register pleasant and unpleasant feelings, she doesn’t think they can form emotion concepts due to their lack of language. The book concludes with Chapter 13, in which Barrett sums up the ingredients necessary to create emotion and reiterates that “the human brain evolved, in the concept of human cultures, to create more than one kind of mind” (280). She shares her hope that constructionist perspectives on brain function and emotion will continue to become more understood and accepted, and encourages wariness toward scientific research that relies on what she considers flawed essentialist studies.