Emotional: How Feelings Shape Our Thinking

4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars | 362 ratings

Price: 15.75

Last update: 09-08-2024


About this item

We’ve all been told that thinking rationally is the key to success. But at the cutting edge of science, researchers are discovering that feeling is every bit as important as thinking.

You make hundreds of decisions every day, from what to eat for breakfast to how you should invest, and not one of those decisions would be possible without emotion. It has long been said that thinking and feeling are separate and opposing forces in our behavior. But as Leonard Mlodinow, the best-selling author of Subliminal, tells us, extraordinary advances in psychology and neuroscience have proven that emotions are as critical to our well-being as thinking.

How can you connect better with others? How can you make sense of your frustration, fear, and anxiety? What can you do to live a happier life? The answers lie in understanding your emotions. Journeying from the labs of pioneering scientists to real-world scenarios that have flirted with disaster, Mlodinow shows us how our emotions can help, why they sometimes hurt, and what we can learn in both instances.

Using deep insights into our evolution and biology, Mlodinow gives us the tools to understand our emotions better and to maximize their benefits. Told with his characteristic clarity and fascinating stories, Emotional explores the new science of feelings and offers us an essential guide to making the most of one of nature’s greatest gifts.

*Includes a downloadable PDF of emotional profile questionnaires from the book

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.


Top reviews from the United States

kenmanofactions
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant work by a brilliant mind
Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2024
This man needs to be on everyone’s must read list.
Peter Gibb
5.0 out of 5 stars a scientist reports on Emotion
Reviewed in the United States on March 25, 2022
What more complex topics are there than the brain and human emotion? Leonard Mlodinow stays true to his science, while he describes with love and clarity how emotions work and how we can use our emotions to guide our path to be the best we can be. If you want to know more about this fundamental building block of our humanity, look no further. Here it is. Myonly reservation is the frequency andsometimes excruciating detail that LM employs to describethe lab experiments. Butthat’s the thorough ess and pride of a dedicated scientist, and hallelujah for that.
Hande Z
4.0 out of 5 stars Feel it
Reviewed in the United States on May 2, 2022
This book is an analysis of the way we think about thinking, focusing not just on rational thinking, but on our feelings and emotions because Mlodinow asserts that the modern view ‘shows that emotion is as important as reason in guiding our thoughts and decisions…rooted in both our knowledge and past experience, emotion changes the way we think about our present circumstances and future prospects, often in subtle but consequential ways’.

Mlodinow discusses the properties of emotional states. For example, persistence, one of the properties, ensure that after we jump away from a snake, our fear persists. He discusses modern psychological experiments that indicate how emotions enhance our thinking. ‘If even the most precise and analytical thinking must be blended with emotion to be successful, it’s no surprise that emotion has great influence over our daily thoughts and decisions’.

Mlodinow discusses positive and negative emotions, and how we can adapt and improve our thinking simply by improving our mental states – happier, less sad people think better. But sadness is an architect of change, so we need to understand it to get the best out of a sad situation. He discusses motivation versus mere liking as impetus to progress, as well as motivational disorders such as addiction.

As a bonus, in chapters 8 and 9, Mlodinow sets out many tests for the reader to gauge his own emotional states and status – as a way of understanding oneself better.
Carole A.
5.0 out of 5 stars Mlodinow's mother provides the foundations for his innovative perspective
Reviewed in the United States on February 23, 2022
I am a therapist, so the question of feelings v. thoughts comes up often. Some clients are more thinking-people, while others are more feeling-people. Mlodinow's book provides new perspectives that I can use on sessions with clients. The book helps to lessen the gap between these two ways of relating to the world and its inhabitants. I also really enjoyed that Mlodinow related a dimension of each chapter to interaction with or memory of his mother who dies just as he completed his book. I found that very endearing
Richard Ohlrogge
5.0 out of 5 stars What influences human behavior!!
Reviewed in the United States on April 13, 2023
Excellent review of how our behavior is influenced by both rational reasoning and emotional experiences. Rational reasoning is determined by what we perceive as truth in understanding right and wrong but emotions are derived from personal life experiences in differentiating good and bad!!
P. Davis, Las Vegas, NV.
3.0 out of 5 stars More of HIS life journey...
Reviewed in the United States on February 22, 2022
I don't think there is much question on the connection between feelings and emotions. I did not find this particularly informative/helpful/"cutting" edge material but far more about cathartically relying his personal experience to find peace for himself. Will give away...
Karen Bailey
5.0 out of 5 stars Acceptance...Reappraisal...Expression
Reviewed in the United States on March 23, 2023
"The message of this book is that you should appreciate and cherish your emotion and get to know your particular emotional profile, for once you are self-aware, you can manage your feelings so that they always work in your favor."
Sally D. Bailey
5.0 out of 5 stars Clear approach to new emotion ideas
Reviewed in the United States on April 10, 2022
Very well-written look at the current view of emotions. Other books -- for instance by Lisa Feldman Barrett -- have been vague and repetitive. I love the personal stories he brought in to explain ideas.

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