The feeling of what happens : body and emotion in the making of consciousness

The publication of this book is an event in the making. All over the world scientists, psychologists, and philosophers are waiting to read Antonio Damasio's new theory of the nature of consciousness and the construction of the self. A renowned and revered scientist and clinician, Damasio has spent decades following amnesiacs down hospital corridors, waiting for comatose patients to awaken, and devising ingenious research using PET scans to piece together the great puzzle of consciousness. In his bestselling Descartes' Error, Damasio revealed the critical importance of emotion in the making of reason. Building on this foundation, he now shows how consciousness is created. Consciousness is the feeling of what happens-our mind noticing the body's reaction to the world and responding to that experience. Without our bodies there can be no consciousness, which is at heart a mechanism for survival that engages body, emotion, and mind in the glorious spiral of human life. A hymn to the possibilities of human existence, a magnificent work of ingenious science, a gorgeously written book, The Feeling of What Happens is already being hailed as a classic. Focuses On The Body's Reaction To Its World, Postulating That A Complex Relationship Between Body, Emotion, And Mind Is Required To Configure The Self. Introduction. Stepping Into The Light -- Feeling And Knowing. Emotion And Feeling -- Core Consciousness -- The Hint Half Hinted -- A Biology For Knowing. The Organism And The Object -- The Making Of Core Consciousness -- Extended Consciousness -- The Neurology Of Consciousness -- Bound To Know. Feeling Feelings -- Using Consciousness -- Under The Light -- Appendix. Notes On Mind And Brain. Antonio Damasio. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 336-365) And Index. "In this book, neuroscientist and humanist Antonio R. Damasio brings a lifetime of research and a literary gift to the last frontier of brain research - the mystery of consciousness. How is it that we know that we know? How is it that our conscious and private minds have a sense of self? These are the questions he considers in The Feeling of What Happens."--BOOK JACKET. I have always been intrigued by the specific moment when, as we sit waiting in the audience, the door to the stage opens and a performer steps into the light; or, to take the other perspective, the moment when a performer who waits in semidarkness sees the same door open, revealing the lights, the stage, and the audience. A new theory of consciousness and the construction of identity focuses on the body's reaction to its world, postulating that a complex relationship between body, emotion, and mind is required to configure the self