Category: Books
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How Are Emotions Made?
Read more: How Are Emotions Made?Psychologist-slash-neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett challenges the idea that emotions are innate and universal. Instead, she has shown that emotion is constructed in the moment, by core systems that interact across the whole brain, aided by a lifetime of learning…This new theory means that you play a much greater role in your emotional life than you…
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Meaning v. Happiness
Read more: Meaning v. HappinessNYT relays four “well-being workouts” from Dr. Martin Seligman. “Psychology is generally focused on how to relieve depression, anger and worry,” he said…“What makes life worth living,” he said, “is much more than the absence of the negative.” To Dr. Seligman, the most effective long-term strategy for happiness is to actively cultivate well-being. In his…
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Mind Over Mind
Read more: Mind Over MindHow expectations shape experience explored at book length in Mind Over Mind–and at interview length here (Scientific American): [P]lacebo effects in medicine are just one example of how our expectations can bend reality. For instance, brain scans reveal that expectations about a wine’s quality (based on price or a critic’s review) actually change the level of activity…
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Toward Unparenting
Read more: Toward UnparentingIn the New Yorker, Elizabeth Kolbert surveys a crop of “unparenting” books that take aim at parental overproviding and overprotecting: Madeline Levine, a psychologist who lives outside San Francisco, specializes in treating young adults. In “Teach Your Children Well: Parenting for Authentic Success” (HarperCollins), she argues that we do too much for our kids because we overestimate…
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This is How
Read more: This is HowA self-help book for the self-help averse from Augusten Burroughs. Here’s a chunk, excerpted at TNB Nonfiction: Canadian researchers found those with low self-esteem actually felt worse after repeating positive statements about themselves. They said phrases such as “I am a lovable person” only helped people with high self-esteem. The study appears in the journal Psychological…