Emotions: A Brief History

1. Meaning and ambiguity.

Emotions: signals of what is vital.

2. Evolution, culture, and a necessary ambivalence.

Inherited repertoires of emotion built upon by culture and experience.

3. Medicine for the soul.

From Epicureans and Stoics via the seven deadly sins to cognitive therapy.

4. Emotions and the brain.

Accidents, imaging technologies, the new psychopharmacology.

5. Social histories: emotions and relationships.

Social goals of aggression, attachment, affiliation, and their mixtures.

6. Individual histories.

Emotional development from childhood to maturity.

7. Emotional disorders.

Excesses of sadness, anxiety, shame, and anger.

8. Emotional intelligence.

What is it to be emotionally intelligent? Are there skills to learn?.

Endnotes.

References.

Index