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

TLDR

Antonio Damasio’s new theory of consciousness, which defines consciousness as the feeling of what happens—our mind’s response to bodily reactions—has generated worldwide anticipation among scientists, psychologists, and philosophers. The book aims to explain how consciousness is created. Damasio employs longitudinal observation of amnesiacs and comatose patients alongside PET imaging to demonstrate that consciousness arises from a body‑centered mechanism linking emotion and mind for survival. The book confirms that emotion is essential to reasoning and has already been praised as a classic of scientific writing.

Abstract

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.