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

Damasio's book provides a compelling and unorthodox account of the nature of consciousness, with a thorough background of current and past research into consciousness. Damasio frames his arguments with both the words of a philosopher and a clinician and thus provides his readers with a well-rounded view into the current state of consciousness research.He introduces his style of writing early in the book, namely one in which he will try to be as concise as possible but will have to resort to "asides and digressions" (page 12) to elaborate on his points. Damasio stays true to his word and has many of these asides and digressions in his attempt to explain this material to his readers. However, these asides and digressions do not detract from the book but rather add much needed context for the layperson to understand what is written. For example, Damasio has various case studies interspersed throughout his book to better explain what he writes. He will often describe patients who have certain interesting impairments and will describe how it affects their behavior. For instance, in part one, he talked about a man who had an "absence seizure followed by an absence automatism" to provide an example of someone who lost consciousness yet was still awake - to prove to readers that consciousness is not dependent on wakefulness. Not all his case studies are about neurological impairments though, but rather about abnormalities. In part two, he talked about Maria Pires, a pianist who was able to control her emotional states and literally change brain function just by thinking about it!One of the book's strong points is that it clearly indicates whether the information it is presenting is the author's opinion based on scientific evidence, or if it is the scientific evidence itself that is gained from peer-reviewed studies. This allows the reader to learn many fundamentals of neuroscience and realize how the problem of consciousness is currently being studied. This also allows readers to appreciate the author's commentary (as they understand where its coming from) that further elaborate upon studies, while also giving them an opportunity to form their own opinions.In part one, he introduces his approach to consciousness by defining certain terms he has coined, such as core consciousness and extended consciousness. He provides an evolutionary perspective on why consciousness exists. He introduces certain facts that he has gleaned from research studies that he holds as the background for the analysis of consciousness that will follow. Overall, this part provides a thorough explanation of terms he uses throughout the book and an excellent background that will aid the reader in understanding why Damasio proposes the ideas that he does in this book. I would encourage anyone who reads this book to read this part twice or to refer back to it (along with the appendix) to prevent any confusion when Damasio uses these new terms in later chapters of the book.In part II, Damasio goes into more detail on the terms he had introduced earlier in the book, such as core consciousness. He also introduces some basic neuroanatomy and definitions in this chapter, but in a way that the reader can learn rather than be frustrated and confused. Damasio introduces part II (as he does with the other parts) in a clear manner - by outlining his points before elaborating on it, a technique which is essential to allow the reader to know what Damasio expects them to learn from his writing. For instance, on page 37, Damasio writes, "In this book, I propose that, just like emotion, consciousness is aimed at the organism's survival, and that, just like emotion, consciousness is rooted in the representation of the body... For all these reasons, it is important to discuss the varied features of emotion before we begin addressing consciousness directly." This introduction, though seemingly lengthy, gives the reader a concise and accurate summary of the sections that follow, as well as letting the reader know why Damasio is discussing these concepts. Part II is the first time in the book that Damasio introduces a specific case for a lengthy section of the book. This is important to point out as in many non-fiction books, personal cases and studies can be discussed for many paragraphs and can subsequently cause the reader to lose interest as he/she will no longer be able to discern what the specific case has to do with the point the author is trying to make. Damasio, though, is able to provide a detailed explanation of a memory-impaired patient but remembers to devote the next few paragraphs to teaching the readers why the case is so important.In part three, Damasio goes in much more depth on his terms such as proto-self, core consciousness, extended consciousness and even terms that he has given new meaning to, such as "object." He writes more on how different brain regions may lend themselves to forming consciousness and devotes considerable attention to certain brain regions such as the reticular formation which play an immense role in consciousness.Part four provides more information and analysis on emotion itself and gives a general overview of consciousness and its role in life. As always, he ties in evolutionary theories and other arguments and facts he exposed in previous parts to make sure that the reader is getting a holistic view and does not remain tied down with the details. Oddly enough, the ending of this book provides a sort of non-fiction cliffhanger. The reader is left wondering where research into consciousness will lead next and just how many of Damasio's theories will be truly validated.Ultimately, this book is a groundbreaking piece of work that will enable its readers to understand where research into consciousness lies today and more importantly, why it matters. It will appeal to the philosopher, the clinician, the scientist and everyone in between!

This is a fabulous book about the way that the brain interacts with the body, and with signals from the external world, to produce consciousness. That being said, there are long stretches of theorizing that could have been usefully broken up by more research -- laboratory or clinical; Pinker's How the Mind Words strikes a better combination. More seriously, I'm not convinced that Damasio achieves his objective: to explain consciousness. The closer he gets to that holy grail, the more he lapses into metaphors and appeals to poetry, a sure sign of trouble. Furthermore, to the extent that he sticks to the cognitive science lingo of mapping and images, I kept thinking that what he considers to be the essence of consciousness -- second-order images of the interaction of images of the world with images from the body -- could be replicated on a computer, without this producing consciousness in the sense that humans and (other) animals have it. While the book left me with a much-improved understanding of the biological supports of consciousness, an analysis of preconditions does not an explanation make.

"There would have been good reason to expect that, as the new century started the expanding brain sciences would make emotion part of their agenda.... But that...never came to pass. ...Twentieth Century science...moved emotion back into the brain, but relegated it to the lower neural strata associated with ancestors whom no one worshipped. In the end, not only was emotion not rational, even studying it was probably not rational." Damasio, 1999, p. 39With that statement, Damasio courageously took his own discipline's psychologists and neuroscientists to the woodshed for ignoring the importance of the affective domain, and that quotation perhaps explains the love-hate relationship that different reviewers express about this particular book.His observation is verifiable. One source is the history of citations on "emotion regulation" in the  Handbook of Emotion Regulation  by James J. Gross, editor. Another is the consignment of Benjamin Bloom's research team's second volume  Taxonomy of Educational Objectives Book 2/Affective Domain  to a collector's item in used book heaps. In all honesty, that 1964 volume was decades ahead of its time, well before Damasio's, and it is still a useful resource if you can get a copy. It is unfortunate how quickly its importance was dismissed, but Damasio's statement largely shows why Bloom's older volume 1 on the cognitive domain  Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, Handbook 1: Cognitive Domain  received a much warmer reception. John Dunlosky and Janet Metcalfe  Metacognition  noted that history reveals psychologists according metacognition with similar low status and held metacognition hostage for a time as an aspect of consciousness not worth the study.Damasio's work seems instrumental in accounting for the exponential upswing in research on affect. I found the book fascinating, not particularly difficult reading, and a useful resource to me as a college teacher and faculty developer. I've recommended it to many professors.

It’s a shame that such a good book has been published on Amazon with such serious formatting errors. I enjoyed the contents of the book but the reading was seriously impaired by the poor formatting.

Amazing book, no further explanation needed. If you're interested in the science and theories of consciousness you're going to enjoy Damasio's theory.

A very interesting hypothesis about how the conscious mind arises out of the brain. At times it felt too much like reading something from one of the old-school philosophers. Indeed Damasio even references some of them as if their non-scientific musings provide additional weight to his arguments, this a shame, but he does bring his work back to provide solid evidence for his hypothesis and suggests questions that other researchers could test in the future.

This is master piece written in simple language. so interesting!would def recommend it

A very comprehensive view of the nature of human consciousness, very plausible and well argued. It needs concentration to read it, as the ideas are difficult at times, but it is most rewarding when you grasp how he integrates emotions and mind theory.

Well worth reading and thinking about!