What is Emotion?

Starred review from October 15, 2007
The love that inspired Burns to thoughts of a red, red rose prompts Kagan to wonder about brain states and semantic labels. As a pioneer in psychological research, Kagan understands how the apparent simplicity of a poetic emotion fractures under the glare of analytical scrutiny. But a survey of recent research also exposes the immaturity of any scientific perspective on the emotions. Kagan stresses that immaturity as he disputes the one-valence interpretation that neurologists have attached to neurological brain scans. Likewise suspect are the theoreticians who would reduce the welter of emotions to a clean interpretive matrix. Again and again, readers confront irreducible complexity in this probing exploration of how physical and social environments stimulate feelings, how the conscious mind interprets these raw feelings, and how personal identity (in culture, gender, and temperament) affects the emotional register and translates it into behavior. Conversant with the latest professional literature, Kagan limns the real progress in answering these questions. But he concludes with a sober acknowledgment that fundamental issues remain shrouded in uncertainty. Only investigators who join Kagan in defying disciplinary boundaries can hope to replace that uncertainty with knowledge. A masterful survey of present understandingand future challenges.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)