Main description:

What can the neural activity in our brain cortex, or our reaction to a Caravaggio painting, reveal about the deep seat of guilt? How can reading Heidegger, or conducting experiments on rats, help us to cope with anxiety in the face of the world's economic crisis? Can traditional Sicilian and Arabic recipes fight sadness more effectively than an anti-depressant prescription? What does the neuroscience of acting tell us about why we feel empathy, and fall for an actor on stage? And how can a bizarre neurological syndrome or a Shakespearean sonnet explain love and intimacy? We live at a time when neuroscience is unlocking the secrets of our emotions. But is science ever enough to explain why we feel the way we feel? How We Feel takes us on a journey through our everyday lives and most common feelings. In each chapter, scientific knowledge mixes with personal experience to offer a compelling account of the continual contrast between logic and imagination - a contrast we must all face in order to understand ourselves and how we feel.