I'm writing this column on an important fascinating new book on emotion theory and research this first day of the US invasion of Iraq. Antonio Damasio's Looking for Spinoza: Joy, Sorrow, and the Feeling Brain (2003) speaks eloquently to how our brain functions, and to the current world situation.

Personal Emotion and Feeling

Emotion is an unconscious arousal system that alerts us to potential dangers and opportunities. Think of emotion as a biological thermostat that monitors and reports variations from normality. Emotional arousal activates our attention system, which identifies the dynamics of the challenge and then activates relevant problem-solving systems that consciously respond to the challenge. Everything we do thus begins with emotion, a key cognitive process that was poorly understood for most of human history.

The internationally renowned neuroscientist Antonio Damasio has helped to unravel the mysteries of emotion during the past decade in a series of three excellent books written for both scientists and general readers—Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain (1994), The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness (1999), and this past month Looking for Spinoza: Joy, Sorrow, and the Feeling Brain (2003). A basic understanding of our brain's principal systems and functions will enhance your understanding, but the books are quite accessible to general readers.

Damasio differentiates between emotions and feelings. Emotions unconsciously integrate sensory input from within and without and often publicly manifest themselves in facial, body, and speech displays. It's often important that we inform others of the kind and severity of the challenge that confronts us. Emotional arousal can lead to conscious feelings that (like the mental images we create) are hidden from others. Feelings elevate our involvement with the challenge and so play a key role in the subsequent design of our response.