The Archaeology of Mind: Neuroevolutionary Origins of Human Emotions

by Jaak Panksepp, Lucy Biven

What makes us happy? What makes us sad? How do we come to feel a sense of enthusiasm? What fills us with lust, anger, fear, or tenderness? Traditional behavioral and cognitive neuroscience have yet to provide satisfactory answers. The Archaeology of Mind presents an affective neuroscience approach which takes into consideration basic mental processes, brain functions, and emotional behaviors that all mammals share to locate the neural mechanisms of emotional expression. It reveals for the first time the deep neural sources of our values and basic emotional feelings.

This book elaborates on the seven emotional systems that explain how we live and behave. These systems originate in deep areas of the brain that are remarkably similar across all mammalian species. When they are disrupted, we find the origins of emotional disorders:

- SEEKING: how the brain generates a euphoric and expectant response

- FEAR: how the brain responds to the threat of physical danger and death

- RAGE: sources of irritation and fury in the brain

- LUST: how sexual desire and attachments are elaborated in the brain

- CARE: sources of maternal nurturance

- GRIEF: sources of non-sexual attachments

- PLAY: how the brain generates joyous, rough-and-tumble interactions

- SELF: a hypothesis explaining how affects might be elaborated in the brain

The book offers an evidence-based evolutionary taxonomy of emotions and affects and, as such, a brand-new clinical paradigm for treating psychiatric disorders in clinical practice.

Genres: Psychology, Neuroscience, Science, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Evolution, Biology

592 pages, Hardcover

First published June 28, 2010

Reviews

[Tobias Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Jaak Panksepp. He's like the Princess Diana of neuroscience. This book reads a bit like a textbook, but isn't dry. It also doubles as a manifesto for the inner lives of animals. Panksepp first asserts that our core affect (or in other words, our rawest emotion) is created by ancient subcortical brain regions. And because we share these subcortical brain regions with lesser animals like rats and mice, these animals aren't actually "lesser" from an emotional point of view. They have similar degrees of subjective experience, and maybe even experience emotions MORE powerfully than us (because our beefy prefrontal cortex downregulates many of ours).

That said, Panksepp's argument rests on some extra large assumptions:

The first is that punishment of behaviour serves as evidence that the animal did in fact experience something. For example, if a rat smells cat fur in the corner of its cage and so never enters that side of the cage again, then according to Panksepp, this is evidence that the rat truly did *feel* fear of the cat fur.

The second is kind of the same as the first, that behaviours can inform about subjective inner states. For example, Panksepp states that cats who have had their cerebral cortex removed can still experience rage when the right subcortical circuits are electrically stimulated. That they're actually "experiencing" rage is an assumption.

Ultimately, I feel this assumption is just capitalising on our intuitions about what other animals are experiencing. Yes I might intuit that the rat is *feeling* fear. But is it? I don't really know as a matter of fact. Given that his assumptions line up with our intuitions, Panksepp doesn't provide strong arguments for why these assumptions should be granted. But after you grant them (and I am happy to), his arguments are awesome.

Here's why I'm happy to grant that animals may be experiencing something:
1. If you're applying the principle of parsimony, I think it assumes less to believe that animals are avoiding a punishment because they truly feel negative emotion, rather than try to explain how their inner lives are especially different to ours in spite of the fact they respond to punishments in the same way we do.
2. We can't be sure either way. But the costs of believing animals don't experience anything are WAY higher than the costs of believing they do. Given that both possibilities are conceivable, we should just play it safe.
3. I have a ginormous emotional bias to believing that my dog is experiencing something when I give it a cuddle.
4. Lets say animals were neurobiologically different in a way that removed their conscious experience. Even then, would it not harm us psychologically to witness an animal suffer while we keep trying to remind ourselves of all the neurobiological reasons that the animal isn't actually experiencing anything? Won't there (and shouldn't there) always be a part of us worrying if our understanding of neurobiology is wrong? This isn't a very strong reason to push me towards assuming animals are conscious, but anyway, it definitely tilts me further in that direction.

This book took me this whole year to get through, but it made me think a lot more about animals and why I'm so species-ist in my ethics. Why value human wellbeing over animals when the conscious states of animals vary across a similar spectrum to ours?

[J.D. Steens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally, here's a book that solidly connects neuroscience to affectivity. The authors even call this field, "affective neuroscience." Most of neuroscience, they write, doesn't touch the role of emotions or, if it does, emotion is put under cognition where it is created by or subject to consciousness. There's room for this "top down" approach, the authors believe, but the driving dynamic comes from the bottom up - from the same heritage we share with all mammals. While we have our neocortex, it is built upon and intertwined with the substrata that we share with other animals. And, the authors argue, against Descartes and much of modern brain science, that these animals have feelings, like ours. They are kindred souls. This, this feeling about animals, is in a way the best part of this book.

The authors write that we have the following seven emotional systems in common with our deeper animal world: seeking, rage, fear, lust, care, panic/grief, and play. These systems constitute survival strategies. They function more or less as autonomous structures, although there's some overlap among these systems, and particularly so for the seeking system. For each system, the authors discuss the specific body chemicals that are involved and the specific regions of the brain that are affected.

The authors state that there's a progression in our capacity to process our emotions. Initially, when young, the instinctual emotions prevail. Later, with growth, there is an increase in "secondary process emotions" that involve controls and regulation, followed by "tertiary awareness social emotions" that involve reflection. While the authors see the former as foundational for the latter two processes, this is not their focus and they only "tangentially touch on the higher emotional and cognitive processes." This is unfortunate. I don't know what they mean when they refer to "higher emotional urges such as greed and dominance." Why are these not primary "urges"? What is "higher" about them, other than cognition helps the "urges" out? The authors believe that war is more about greed and dominance that come from "higher brain areas" ("learned urge for social dominance") rather than the "rage system." Well, o.k., but why the urge for greed and dominance? Social learning is not arbitrary. It has to tap into something that is already there like primary emotions. They believe that there's not sufficient evidence to say that social dominance "comes from a single system," and they speculate that it must come from learning, though they also believe some biological factors are at work. The authors treat emotions here like the cognitive scientists that they more generally criticize. Given the prevelance of status-rank behavior, now and throughout our history, their "social learning" conclusion is surprising.

More generally, it is not clear how these two higher-level processes that the authors mention differ with the conventional view that emotions are under cognitive control, along the lines of, for example, Plato and the Stoics. The authors do say that the neocortex (intellect) does not provide its own motivation and that it is the servant of the emotional system. Yet, if the motivation comes from our emotions, how does the neocortex regulate emotions? If the intellect tells us to respect others, how does that work if there's no motivation (desire) to respect others? At times the authors seem to lapse into a more or less conventional talk therapy solution. Rage is controlled by "positive ties" to family and friends and to "understand consequences." Yet, given the power of body chemicals for some individuals, how does this work?

I am not altogether clear about the terminology that is being used in this book and I wonder if there's conflation at times. The authors refer to emotional "responses" frequently, but they also say that we are not passive beings and that emotions are also internally generated and outgoing (i.e., we seek). In other words, we act as well as react. They separate affects from emotions, but also seem to say that emotions are one kind of affect. I'm not clear about the difference they see between feelng and emotion. At times, they seem to be separate but elsewhere they refer to "emotional feelings." The authors refer to organismic needs and emotions, as if these are distinct, yet is there a difference? Why else does an emotion move the body unless there's an underlying need? The authors seem to treat emotions "globally" when it might benefit all to tease out their significant aspects (e.g., emotion states,both what is needed and not needed; emotion actions and emotion reactions; and objects of emotions, both good and bad).

At one point, the authors note three different affects (homeostatic, emotions and sensory) but then they say they are focusing only on "emotions" to derive their seven emotional systems. But they also refer to "the seven basic affective systems" as if emotions were not a subset of affect. An alternative way to present this is by not separating these affects so severely. In a life energy model, the body seeks what it needs to survive (the authors seem to struggle a bit with their seeking system because if cross cuts so much with other categories) and defends against threats or harms to its needs. Similar to Schopenhauer's Will, the self is propelled outward by need (philosophically, "pain"). When need is satisfied, or when there's successful defense, the self is in an equilibrium state ("pleasure") until need or threats or harm rise anew.

In this view, the organism/self seeks nurture and protection (the authors speak of the "care urge."), which brings in food/energy, parental care and group life. The authors downgrade "hunger" as merely a body regulation function which is an interesting way to view it as the body's primary mission as a "survival machine" is to overcome the effects of entropy by importing energy from the outside. Lust is also part of the outgoing, seeking system - looking for mates for sexual reproduction. On the response side, life energy is reactive and the self protects itself against threats and harm through the authors' fear and rage systems and their precursors among our animal predecessors. The authors panic/grief system might also be seen as part of the fear system as it involves the threat of or actual loss of care and attachment.

This leaves the play system from the authors' list of seven emotion systems. The authors speculate on the reasons for this system, but there's room for more probing. For example, in a Schopenhauer-like life energy model (the Will; and also, perhaps, this is what Nietzsche sensed), life's energy is directed toward the objects related to survival - what life needs, what life doesn't need. When survival is not on the line, as among dependent children or well-to-do adults in the modern world, that energy needs to go somewhere. Survival energy needs to be expended somehow on something, and play does exactly that, as does sport and entertainment for many modern adults.

Three other miscellaneous thoughts about this book: The authors see a connection between social attachment and addiction, and view panic and grief as the equivalent of chemical withdrawal. This is a strong insight. The authors do not get bogged down on the free will debate. We are designed by evolution to make decisions about how to meet our needs, how to defend them, and how to play with our free time (a theory of boredom?). We choose all the time. The authors comment on sibling rivalry that occurs within the animal world and it's interesting, and a relief, that this book does not engage the kin selection argument that we act to promote our kindred genes. In the authors' view, our nurturing love and social bonding systems helps to explain why we promote the interests of others as well as our own.

Given the heavy if not extreme bias against affectivity within cognitive science, the authors observe that we are not very far along in this area. There's a long way to go, but this book points us in the right direction.

[Alex Rubenstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dr. Panksepp puts forth two central theses in this interesting book:

1. There exist such things are raw affects that contribute to our experience--perhaps even our consciousness--independent of cognition. These raw affects exist in subcortical brain regions developed long ago evolutionarily, far before higher-order neocortical regions. In other words, we don't necessarily need to think in order to feel. In other other words, our higher-order thoughts don't necessarily "read out" the jumble of chemicals produced in our brain.

2. There are seven major/independent emotional systems in the brain. Seeking/expectancy, fear, rage, grief/panic, lust, care and play. Each of these operates in pretty localized areas and can be electrically stimulated to produce such feelings in animals/humans.

To the first point, I think Panksepp has succeeded. I started this book with a knowledge of affect systems coming only from a few semesters of biopsychology, cognitive psychology, sensation and perception classes, and a doctoral seminar in affect/emotions. I am familiar with some key chemicals and biological structures, but am acknowledging a good deal of ignorance to scientifically speak to the theories presented herein.

Panksepp draws his arguments from solid science and theory, letting the hard data speak for itself. For instance, I used to believe that emotion is largely ambiguous until read-out or interpreted by cognitions to piece things together. But how can this be wholly true if we can directly electrically stimulate fear or rage in localized regions of the brain? How can this be true at all if people with NO neocortex can still experience joy? I'll admit the authors are a bit grandiose and polemic at times and do ramble into speculation, but the foundational argument stands: affects, I agree, can exist in a "raw" form independent of cognition. This is not to say that cognition does not operate separately for most people in how we experience emotion, but the effect of affect without cognition has been shown. I learned a lot of new things about the history of behaviorism and affective neuroscience and the brain, so that was fun. Where I plead ignorance is in not being an active member of the debate. How would Damasio/LeDoux react to Panksepp's arguments? Is he cherrypicking data or not? The references are pretty self-serving and many are not peer reviewed works. Again, I just don't know enough to critique like a reviewer. Leading me to thesis 2....

I wasn't completely sold on the seven systems. Of course, rage and fear and lust and grief are major players and should be in the discussion, so no surprise. But play? He calls it "social joy". Play reads far too behaviorally for it to be a core affect. Even the text notes "It is difficult to resolve all ambiguities in trying to generate neat categories of affective feelings..." (p. 267). We all hear of Ekman's work on six core facial emotions, so where are disgust and contempt? Are they not important? Certainly I would think disgust would be (evolutionally), in terms of signaling food quality and poisonous berries, etc. So we are left wondering why some emotions didn't make the cut. I see the behavior of play as instinctual--that case he makes quite persuasively--but the *emotion*? Social joy I might just call joy, which is fair to distinguish from expectancy. I just didn't see the same support for that system as for others. Moreover, what was most lacking was discussion of the perhaps more-complex affects (guilt, shame, schadenfreude, pity, flow, stubbornness, and on and on). Are these somehow more cognitively-laden? Or perhaps we have not done the research or do not have the tools yet to answer such questions and this book is more of a call-to-action to study independent affects more. Panksepp certainly tries to make that case. But I felt it important to bring up this issue that wasn't there but should be (a Type-II error, so to speak). Anyway, I wasn't completely sold on why seven was the magic emotional number, given so many other emotions integral to experience.

Ultimately, you'll learn a lot through this book: about the brain, about affective neuroscience (no journal yet for this, but there is for cognitive and behavioral varieties...), about the history of emotion research and the core players in the game, and maybe even a little about yourself. Certainly emotion is so important to giving life flavor, I believe and agree with the authors that it is certainly an area deserved of greater scientific inquiry.

[Clarence Williams]

An essential book for anyone interested in human behavior.

[Javier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Panksepp and Biven have delivered a remarkable and detailed record of the neural architecture of human emotions. There is quite a lot to take from this book. In my opinion, Panksepp was way ahead of his time and I can't find a better description than one made by another Goodreads user (Morgan Blackledge): Panksepp was an underrated mega-dude! I would only add super- to it. Go buy this book now!

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Regrettably I couldn’t finish it within the last year, but this was a really big book to digest, despite being written for the general reader (at least hypothetically). That being said, it is a tremendous achievement. It really unfortunate that the author passed away so soon after it was published, I really can’t wait to see where affective neuroscience goes from here. Despite being incredibly dense, it was fascinating to learn about the affective states of being, and how all the various different neurotransmitters work to create all of our emotional states in so much more complex ways than I could have ever imagined. (Granted, I’m only a behavioral health RN, so my level of knowledge is pretty limited in this area compared to specialists). Truly a fascinating book and really amazing to learn about how the brain evolved over time and how affective states are shared in the animal kingdom. Amazing.

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was introduced to this book first by Albert and Beatriz Sheldon’s Complex Integration of Multiple Brain Systems in Therapy (an explosive must-read for psychotherapists interested in theoretical integration) and later through authors in the IPNB series.

While much of Panksepp/Biven’s research/writing went over my head (and this this was a long and grueling read/listen at times), it provided an insightful overview into the neuroscience research history (and politics) behind the study of consciousness, emotions, and behaviors of humans and animals. Most riveting for me was the authors’ description of process of gender/sexual “determinism” of the mind vs. body during the gestational period, as influenced by neurochemical processes. I was amazed to have not heard this so clearly explained before!

[Ben Zimmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jaak Panskepp, who is an affective neuroscientist teamed up with Lucy Biven, a clinician, to compile this book as a discussion of the foundational systems that our emotions are built upon. His view, based mainly on animal research, is that there exist core systems in the brain that structure our feelings and motivations, which he labels seeking, rage, fear, lust, care, panic/grief, and play. He argues that all of these systems are subcortical and evolutionarily ancient (in other words, that these basic emotions are not at all unique to humans), but that some more complex emotional states that are unique to humans come from an interplay between these core systems and cortex. Practically, the authors argue that understanding these core systems would help inform the treatment of emotional disorders in a way that is more useful than some of the therapy methods that existed at the time of writing.

The first chapter - ancestral passions - lays out the groundwork for the rest of the book. Panskepp first clearly outlines the fact the named systems that he will discuss may differ somewhat from folk psychology terms, which is why he's capitalizing them.

He also introduces the triangulation approach - by studying, 1) subjective states in humans (as related to the brain), 2) brain functions themselves, most easily studied in animals, and 3) behaviors that animals exhibit in order to survive (as related to the brain). The chapter also introduces the competing ideas of the basic or dimensional view of emotion. The basic view holding that there are different emotion systems, and the dimensional view postulating that a valence and arousal dimension are sufficient to explain most emotional content, subserved by a "core affect" brain process. He also introduces competing views about the separation of affect and cognition, which is his view, vs. a more unified view of affective neuroscience as part of cognition.

In the second chapter, "The Evolution of Affective Consciousness," the authors give a pretty comprehensive history of studying affects in other animals and map out where they believe this study has gone awry. Much of the chapter is devoted to arguing against the James-Lange theory of emotion and their modern versions, which is that evaluating internal sensations lead to the affect. In some versions of this theory, that requires language, a neocortex, working memory, or autonomic changes in other parts of the body, so Panskepp and Biven take some time to provide evidence against all those ideas. The more ancient (further back in the brain) the circuit for stimulation, the more intense the emotional display / affective feeling. Decorticated animals are highly emotional. People without nerve input from the rest of the body still experience emotions.

Then Panskepp begins delineating all of the primary process emotional systems in the brain. Chapter 3 is devoted to the SEEKING system, which most neuroscientists refer to as the reward system. This seeking / motivation system is foundational for many other emotional systems because it promotes behavioral activation (Panskepp thinks through affects of excitement and pleasure). This system runs up from the ventral tegmental area to three main destinations through distinct dopamine pathways (the medial forebrain bundle and later hypothalamus, the nucleus accumbens, and the medial prefrontal cortex. The system responds particularly to novelty and unexpected rewarding stimuli.

Chapter 4 is about the "rageful furies of the mind," which readily manifest when our SEEKING state is thwarted. The system depends on the periaqueductal gray, hypothalamus, and amygdala, although only stimulating the PAG in isolation can create anger. It is a very complex system that interacts with many neurotransmitters and higher level brain areas, and is difficult to completely distinguish from other violent behaviors such as predation, infanticide, social dominance, although it does seem to be distinct.

Chapter 5 is about fear. The fear system is a two-way pathway that goes from the central amygdala to the anterior/medial hypothalamus, and down to the periaqueductal gray in the midbrain (which was a very similar system as rage). It is also co-accompanied by physiological arousal like rage. The unconditioned stimuli of fear include pain, noise, predators or evidence of predators, open spaces, sudden movements. A number of neuropeptides can cause fear behaviors in animals.

Chapter 6 deviates a bit from the primary process affective systems, and makes a case for the affects in learning and memory. Here, the authors try to distinguish learning and memory from affects themselves, to again argue against the need for learning and the cortex to explain core affective systems. They do show though, that learning and memory are commonly associated with emotional arousal. For example, fear generates strong automatic and involuntary responses, and the seeking system is intimately involved in motivation to do the repetitive practice that leads to procedural skills.

Chapter 7 discusses the LUST system. The authors make the case that although the basic circuitry is the same for males and females, there are important differences in this system between sexes. In males, the center of sexual urges comes from the medial regions of the anterior hypothalamus. I found it interesting that testosterone activates this region (the preoptic area in rats) and that they will behave as if injections of testosterone to this area are pleasurable. The ventromedial hypothalamus is more influential in female sexual responsivity. They respond to different sensory input channels and promote different copulatory reflexes, but the evidence for lustful affects is still a bit uncertain. Humans appear to be a bit unique among mammals in that adrenal testosterone is important for female sexual enthusiasm in a way that is not important for other species. Vasopressin and oxytocin are also important neurochemical signaling molecules that seem to play different roles in males and females. Vasopressin makes males "pushy" but makes females sexually inhibited. Oxytocin is more abundant in females and encourages nurturing behaviors, although this also may differ in humans.

Chapter 8 discusses the CARE system. This is the first of a "super-cluster" of three primary processes that are behind non-sexual social bonds (including grief and play). Each of these systems shares similar regulatory neurochemistries, and are a little bit more contentious in terms of other scientists thinking of them as primary-process systems. The authors think of care as developing as part of parental instincts (and particularly maternal instincts) towards rearing young. They posit that the care system developed evolutionarily from the older LUST system (because the neuropeptides involved in mammals and birds are similar to those found in non-caring reptilian LUST systems). The system seems to rely on the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) and dorsal preoptic area of the anterior hypothalamus, which are cell fields that produce oxytocin in mammals. Destroying the cells there also remove maternal behavior. There is also a pathway from this system to the ventral tegmental area, which activates seeking behaviors. Although the system exists in both females and males, it is highly sensitized and affected by female sex hormones, and can change during pregnancy and lactation. Endogenous opiods are also strongly involved in this system, and the authors posit that opioid addiction and withdrawal are very similar and rely on the same neural systems as social dependence.

Chapter 9 discusses the panic grief system, which is the other side of the coin from the CARE system. This chapter about separation distress is really personal to Panskepp as he discusses his profound grief to the death of his daughter. This system involves the anterior cingulate, the dorsomedial thalamus, the periaqueductal gray, and cerebellum. In animals, some smaller nuclei in the hypothalamus and midbrain have also been identified including the ventral septal area, dorsal preoptic area, and bed nucleus of the stria terminalis. This grief system seems to oppose the care system, in that the care system can be activated in relief of separation. It probably evolved from a more ancient pain network in order to encourage maternal attachments and then social bonds. It gradually becomes more insensitive as animals age.

In chapter 10, "playful dreamlike circuits of the brain," the authors discuss social joy and laughter. Playfulness is fragile, in that it only occurs when an animal is safe, secure, and feeling good. It is distinct from both seeking and aggression. Touch stimuli can initiate play which are processed in distinct areas of the thalamus (the parafascicular complex and posterior dorsomedial thalamic nuclei). The system is also tuned to unpredictable stimuli. Laughter seems to be involved in the system, and all the sites you can stimulate laughter (via the SEEKING system), animals will also self-stimulate.

Chapter 11 addresses the question of the subjective-self more generally. The authors believe that subjective affects can motivate behavior only within the context of also feeling like you have a self. They believe this sense is generated specifically by deep subcortical processes. This is built on top of a "mapping" circuit that integrates emotional, motivational, homeostatic, and perhaps sensation (a protoself). They postulate that visual/auditory stimuli actually began as affective experiences rather than as sensory experiences. Enhanced sensory/perceptual systems are built on top of those. The authors don't go too much detail in discussing details of a core-self network, but generally localize it to the subcortical midline structures (midbrain, hypothalamus, thalamus, and parts of the cerebellum). Which are most important for conscious experience? Not the cerebellum or basal ganglia, but the rest of the structures are candidates, and he doesn't really elaborate too much which ones. I think that's because he's providing evidence mostly from lesion studies, and a lot of lesions to the midbrain, hypothalamus, and thalamus destroy consciousness, wakefulness, and dramatically alter behavior.

Chapter 12 tries to integrate the brain science with psychotherapeutic ramifications. The core theme of this chapter is that directly manipulating the primary-process emotional circuits (through psychology, somatic, or physiological approaches) will add to manipulating tertiary-emotional processes (through mediation of cognitive processes that is at the core of cognitive-behavioral therapy and much psychotherapy). For example, engaging opposing positive affective systems to counter-act negative disorders, or replaying negative memories in the context of care and play. The authors also strongly advocate neurochemical manipulation of these systems.

Finally, there is a conclusion where the authors reiterate many of the major philosophical themes of the book, including the need and importance of affective research generally, the idea that affect and consciousness is evolutionarily old and that other animals are likely to experience very similar primary-affects as us (especially mammals), and the need to distinguish between the primary-process affective networks mediated by the midbrain to the tertiary-process networks that involve the interaction between cognitive systems and emotion.


This book was dense and informative and brought a huge range of questions to mind.

Are affects intentional (always about something)? My partner and I have noticed that when she experiences an emotion, she can almost always immediately know the cause. My experience is that emotions are much more clouded. I often find myself developing competing hypotheses about what is making me feel a certain way.

The triangulation approach (in parallel looking looking at the mammalian brain, the instinctual emotional behaviors of other animals, and the subjective states of the human mind) strikes me as reasonable if we are reasoning by analogy. However, it also seems circular to say things like "it provides a way of understanding scientifically, for the first time, some of the experiences of other animals." I feel like the inherent assumption is that subjective experience is created globally in the brain rather than some specific module supported to it. That also seems reasonable, but I wish that Panskepp spent more time discussing the assumptions behind making inferences from such an approach.

Do some animals (perhaps those that reproduce quickly and are predated on) mainly exist in a constant state of negative affects?

The distinction between operational terms "reinforcements, rewards, punishments" and affective terms "satisfaction, discomfort" is interesting to think about from the perspective of artificial intelligence. We know how to structure algorithms to reach some goal state or avoid some undesirable state. We can pre-define those states for a variety of types of systems. Is this inherently different than what biology does in emotional systems? If so, do even simple artificial intelligence experience affective states? If not, how do you justify why we should believe that animals (including humans) feel affects (as Panskepp does), but artificial intelligence does not?

Does the "play" system really represent a core primary-process affect? This was an interesting section, but also seemed the weakest to me, in terms of describing a core affect. To me, it seems like "feeling good" is a more primary affect that accompanies play. It is interesting that Panskepp defines primary process emotion systems based on mostly neural (rather than affective) criteria. The criteria are:

a. Unconditioned stimuli can activate the emotion
b. Unconditioned behavioral / autonomic changes occur to the unconditioned stimulus
c. Gates and valuates incoming stimuli
d. Positive feedback outlasts the original stimulus
e. Can be regulated by higher cognitive functions
f. Influence higher mental processes
g. Generates affective feelings

In some ways, this seems like a really good thing to do. Cognitive psychologists are constantly arguing about "what attention is" for instance, but writing from a mechanistic perspective clarifies things when our language has gotten a concept wrong. However, we should probably pay attention to when something is defined according to one view, but doesn't feel intuitively true. For example, I feel "fear" very obviously in my experience, but I don't feel "play" very obviously in the same way. Instead I would say that I feel "happy" while playing.

Is it correct to draw distinctions between affects and other perceptions? How do we distinguish things like hunger, thirst, and pain from the affective systems that Panskepp and Biven delineate?

One thing that was very striking to me throughout is that very small structures in the midbrain or hypothalamus play a huge role in emotion (and thus in learning, subjective experience, and behavior). Yet, these areas are often just left out of the discussion in cognitive functional imaging experiments in humans because the areas is so small. We have the capacity to see some of these areas now with advances in ultra-high field imaging, and this book has been personally inspiring to me to refocus on this anatomy and neglected regions.

I especially liked predictions from this book about different "flavors" of similar affects. For instance, there is anxiety rooted in low level activation of the fear system, and anxiety rooted in the separation anxiety of the GRIEF system. These likely come from different sources, and may be treated differently.

The view of focusing on neural systems pre-empted the research domain criteria (RDOC) that the National Institute of Mental Health uses to investigate mental disorders rather than the diagnoses in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. He advocates for emotional endophenotypes instead of syndromal thinking in psychiatry. It was interesting to me that RDOC ended up creating domains around arousal and valence, rather than the core affective systems that Panskepp advocated for. Could we make even more progress by rearranging research domains in terms of neural systems rather than symptoms?

I enjoyed thinking about the distinction between tertiary (reflective cognitive) and primary process emotions as a way to seek out higher level intelligence in other animals. For instance, humans seek out things that make them afraid when they are in a safe context (like horror movies or haunted houses). We might infer that animals that seek out feeling afraid in safe contexts are also reflective. Or animals who avoid a pleasurable emotion because of longer-term consequences.

Overall, an extremely thought-provoking and interesting read!

[Teo · Rating 4 out of 5]

2025.09.25–2025.09.30

Contents

Panksepp J & Biven L (2012) (27:37) Archaeology of Mind, The - Neuroevolutionary Origins of Human Emotions

Dedication

Preface and Acknowledgments
• Why Psychiatrists, Physicians, and Psychotherapists Should Understand the Seven Basic Affective Systems
• Other Audiences
• • Parents
• • Teachers
• • Managers and Supervisors
• • Animal Behaviorists
• Acknowledgments

Foreword by Daniel J. Siegel, MD

01. Ancestral Passions
• Affects Are Primary Experiences
• The Triangulation of Studies of Brain, Mind, and Behavior
• • The Critical Importance of Neurochemical Manipulations
• • Modern Brain Imaging of Higher and Lower Brain Functions
• Affects Do Not Feel Like Anything Else
• Affective Taxonomy: The Seven Basic Affective Systems
• Oxytocin and Social Emotions—Love or Confidence?
• Affects and Evolution
• Summary

02. The Evolution of Affective Consciousness: Studying Emotional Feelings in Other Animals
• The Marriage of the Brain and the Mental Apparatus: A History
• • How Did the Other Animals Lose Their Emotional Feelings?
• • From Nineteenth-Century Medical Science to Behaviorism
• • The Modern Neuroscience of Emotions
• The Neuropsychological Views of Antonio Damasio
• The Cognitive Neuroscience View of Joseph LeDoux
• The Behavioral Neuroscience View of Edmund Rolls
• Classic Affective Neuroscience Views
• • Problems with “Read-Out” Theories of Emotions
• Hard Evidence for the Existence of Emotional Affects in Other Animals
• A Short History of the SEEKING System
• Further Support for Emotional Affects in Animals
• Sensory, Homeostatic, and Emotional Affects
• BrainMind Evolution and Higher Feelings

03. The SEEKING System: Brain Sources of Eager Anticipation, Desire, Euphoria, and the Quest for Everything
• The Many Manifestations of SEEKING in the Modern World
• The Anatomy of the SEEKING System
• The Chemistry of the SEEKING System
• Stimuli That Inherently Arouse the SEEKING System
• • SEEKING in Relation to Disappointment and RAGE
• Pathologies of the SEEKING System
• • Antipsychotic Medications
• • Bizarre Cases of Ritualistic Adjunctive Behaviors
• • The Strange Case of “Autoshaping”—Correlations Are Not Causes, but...
• The SEEKING System and Faith
• Two Generations (and Counting) of Misunderstandings about the SEEKING System
• • Schedules of Reinforcement and the Strange Effects of “Brain Reward”
• • And the “Brain Reward” Effects Became Stranger and Stranger
• • The Troublesome Definitive Experiments
• The Dopamine/SEEKING System—Does It Just Control Behavior or Affect Also?
• The SEEKING System, Conditioned Learning, and the “Reward Prediction Error”
• • Learning Follows Quickly in the Footsteps of Emotional Arousal
• The SEEKING System and a Sense of Time
• On the Precipice of Reason: Other Aspects of SEEKING in Human Aspirations and Defeats
• Summary

04. The Ancestral Sources of RAGE
• The RAGEful Furies of the Mind
• The Neural Sources of RAGE
• Sham RAGE?
• The Neurochemistries of RAGE
• Multiple RAGE Controls in the Brain, with Many Unanswered Questions
• Brain Images of Anger
• RAGE and War
• The Higher Neural Regulation of RAGE
• The Affective Component of RAGE
• Predatory Aggression Is Not Due to RAGE
• Infanticide and the SEEKING System
• The Ambiguous Case of Social Dominance
• • The Interaction of Human RAGE, Predatory Aggression, and Social Dominance
• Summary

05. The Ancestral Roots of FEAR
• The Intrinsic FEAR System of the Brain
• The Brain Trajectory of the FEAR System
• Pain and the FEAR System
• Varieties of FEAR Experiments and the Chemistry of FEAR
• Varieties of Anxiety in the BrainMind
• • The FEAR Chemistries in the BrainMind
• A Few Speculative Developmental Thoughts about FEAR and the Amygdala
• Examples of FEAR in Child Clinical Situations
• Summary

06. Beyond Instincts: Learning and the Affective Foundations of Memory
• Memory Is No Longer as Stable as a Mountain
• Caveats: Primary-Process Emotional Control of Learning and Memory
• Different Types of Learning and Memory
• An Interlude: An Example of the Flow of Memories
• The Actual Mechanisms of Memories
• “Working Memory” Is Essential for Our Ability to Think
• High and Low Roads of Sensory-Emotional Conditioning
• The Experiments of Joseph LeDoux
• The Contextual Conditioning of FEAR
• The Affective Stress of FEAR Circuitry: Do Rats Feel FEAR?
• A Historical Example: Implicit Emotional Learning and Memory
• Affective Forces Guide Memory Formation
• Genetic Memories: Beyond Traditional Memories to Brain Network Sensitization and Epigenetic Molding of the BrainMind
• Summary

07. LUSTful Passions of the Mind: From Reproductive Urges to Romantic Love
• The Brain’s Sexual Circuits: What Is the Nature of the Sexually Affective Mind?
• • Testosterone and Male Aggression
• • Female LUST Circuits of the Brain
• LUST and the SEEKING System
• Gender within the BrainMind: Primary-Process Gender Mentality
• The Real Oxytocin Story
• Oxytocin and Other Relevant Animal Research
• • Human Psychological Effects of Oxytocin and How They Relate to Mammalian Primary-Emotional Processes
• Conceptual Issues: Emotional LUST and the Bodily Affects
• Gender Differences within the BrainMind
• How Biology Becomes Destiny within the Primary-Process Affective Functions of the Mind
• Male and Female Minds: Fetal Development of Gender within the Brain
• • Gender “Identity” Lessons From Rats
• The Politics of Sex and Conceptual Confusions: We Cannot Ever See the Primary-Process Level Clearly in Adult Humans
• Caveat—Variety Is the Spice of Life
• Afterthought: Psychoanalytic Reflections about Sexual Development
• Summary

08. Nurturing Love: The CARE System
• Maternal Urges
• Neuroscience and the Acceptance of Social Brain Systems
• Evolution of the CARE System
• The CARE System and Psychoanalytic Theory
• CARE Circuitry and Chemistry
• The Neurochemical Changes of Pregnancy
• Varieties of Maternal Behavior and Mother–Infant Bonding
• Unique Aspects of Human Bonding and Social Development
• Social Memories, Bonding, and Maternal Chemistries
• Oxytocin and the Affective Power of Music
• Promoting Maternal Feelings and Benefits for Infants
• Clinical Implications

09. Born to Cry: The PANIC/GRIEF System and the Genesis of Life-Sustaining Social Bonds
• The Painful Sources of Social Bonds
• Historical Perspectives on Social-Emotional Attachment Functions of the Brain
• Distress Vocalizations and Varieties of Infant Attachment
• The Anatomy of GRIEF
• Maturation of the GRIEF System
• The Chemistry of GRIEF and Social Bonding
• Opioid Activity, Learning, and Other Positive Experiences
• Opioids and the Sense of Touch
• • Two Other Comfort Chemicals That Soothe GRIEF
• • Opioids and Other Social Neurochemicals in Autism
• Stress Chemicals That Arouse the GRIEF System
• Stress and Depression
• Brain Opioids and Depression
• The Differentiation of GRIEF and FEAR
• Psychopathology and the GRIEF System
• The GRIEF System and Psychotherapeutic Techniques
• Summary

10. PLAYful Dreamlike Circuits of the Brain: The Ancestral Sources of Social Joy and Laughter
• The Development of Social PLAY in Young Animals
• Misunderstandings about PLAY
• The Neuroanatomy of PLAY
• Rough-and-Tumble PLAY, Touch, and Laughter
• • More about Rat Laughter
• • The Dark Side of Human Laughter
• The Neurochemistry of PLAY
• Functions of PLAY
• An Interlude: PLAY and Dreaming
• Epigenetic Effects of PLAY on Higher Neocortical Functions
• PLAY Deprivation: ADHD-Type Impulse Control Disorders?
• Psychostimulants and Drug Abuse
• Other Clinical Considerations
• Summary

11. Toward a Neurobiology of the Soul: The Core SELF and the Genesis of Primary-Process Feelings
• Why Do We Need to Consider the Neural Nature of “the SELF”—the Animalian “Soul”?
• Integrations between Cognitive (Higher) and Affective (Lower) Forms of Consciousness
• Neuroevolutionary Perspectives on the SELF: From Experience to Awareness
• Anatomy of the Core SELF
• The Core SELF and the Mechanisms of Affective Consciousness
• Neuroecological Perspectives on Affects and the SELF
• Functional Evidence for a Core SELF
• Higher Brain Regions and Affective States
• SELF-Related Processing Is Grounded in Lower Brain Motor Functions
• The Emergence of Idiographic Higher SELVES
• Dual-Aspect Monism and the Ancestral Mind
• The Neural SELF and Psychological Well-Being
• Summary

12. Brain Emotional Systems and Affective Qualities of Mental Life: From Animal Affects to Human Psychotherapeutics
• Development of Affective States and the Evolutionary Levels of Brain and Mind
• Affective Neuroscience and the Dynamics of Emotional Minds
• Emotional Endophenotypes versus Syndromal Thinking in Psychiatry
• Animal Models, Psychiatric Science, and the Future of Diagnostics
• Toward an Integration of Levels of Control: Affective Therapeutic Perspectives
• Affective Balance Therapies
• Conscious and Unconscious Processes in the Brain and Psychotherapy: Putting Things in Perspective
• • The Tortuous Path to Understanding Basic Emotions: Our Inherited Tools for Living
• Affective Neuroscience, Biological Psychiatry, and Psychotherapy
• Emotional Dynamics and Affective Balance Therapies
• Affective Balance Therapies in Contrast to Traditional Psychotherapies
• Psychopathology and the Brain with a Focus on Depression
• Empathic Affective Neuroscience: Views on Selected Cultural Practices
• Toward a Synthesis of Affective Neuroscience and Therapeutic Practices
• Summary
• Epilogue: Recent Personal Experiences with PTSD, EMDR, and Reconsolidation

13. Coda: Philosophical Reflections: Can We Go From Mice to Men and Back Again?
• The Most Important Question in Neuroscience?
• The Ancestral Sources of Consciousness
• Those Ever-Present Cognitive-Affective Interactions
• The Loss of “Meaning” During the Twentieth Century
• The Agony of Wittgenstein: Man’s Search for Meaning
• Affective Options and Opinions

References
Index

[Petre · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I’ve read on the inner workings of the mind of humans and other animals.

It is also one of the most important books I have ever read.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Panksepp adds a foundational body of work to our understanding of human nature in this analysis of the neuroscience of emotion. Basing his work on an analysis on animal studies, human neuroimaging and psychology Panksepp gets to work overturning a centuries worth of the behavioral paradigm with its preference for keeping emotions walled off in the "black box". In fact this book is a clarion call for affective neuroscience, which is clearly leading a revolution against the dominant paradigms of cognitive science with it's parent discipline of behavioral science.

In short Panksepp identifies 7 core emotional foundations to human consciousness. These seven emotional systems are tightly linked to instinctive behavioral repetoires and are linked through learning over the lifespan to implicit knowledge and ultimately to our cognitive faculties and our explicit personal narratives. Panksepp is making no smaller argument than "I feel therefore I am". He argues persuasively that we can have consciousness without the "neocortex", which controls all our powers of "reasoning", but we cannont have consciousness without our emotional systems. Emotions are at the core of consciousness, not artifacts of consciousness. This also implies that mammals and even birds have consciousness... no doubt a controversial assertion... but one he makes a strong case for.

The seven core emotional systems Panksepp identifies are 1) "seeking" - what behaviorists have termed the reward system, but Panksepp further fleshes out as the heart of human curiosity, enthousiasm and energetic positive expectancy. He explains the complexity of how this system pairs itself with the other emotional systems, to "seek" alternative objects based on the emotional system involved. 2)"rage" - serving obvious roles of combative self defence, but inherently an unpleasant emotional state. 3)"fear" - serving the role of avoidant self defence, and the four social emotions: 4) "lust" - very interesting discussion of the gonadal hormones and sexual development here, 5)"care" - the instinctive drive to nurture others 6) "grief" - probably the most fascinating discussion on our drive to attach and it's negative facet when attachment is threatened. Here Panksepp discusses the difference between the anxiety fueled by threatened attachment (critical in panic attacks, social phobia and depression) and the anxiety based on the fear system. This is a distinction that seems profound and has been very poorly understood. Finally 7) "play" an area that is completely fascinating and in which Panksepp has done some pioneering work.

Overall Panksepp's work is groundbreaking and foundational. I would strongly advise any with interests in neuroscience, or the psychology of emotions to acquaint themselves with this work. The book is well written and very readable.

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don’t let the weighty title of this book scare you away from reading this fascinating, detailed and illuminating discussion of the roots of human emotions. Not only will you be amazed at the insightful writing, but also the compassionate advocacy Dr. Panksepp shares for non-human animals as well. If the thought of tickling rats and making them laugh sounds like your idea of a great research project, then this book will delight you.

The book describes the seven ancient emotional circuits formed below our neocortex (the thinking part of our brain): seeking, rage, fear, lust, care, panic/grief, and play. These emotions form the core of our emotional experience, and are furthered refined and regulated as they rise through the neural circuits of the higher brain. The book is filled with explorations of a range of human emotions and how they might come to be, and with this self-understanding, we may be able improve our own emotional lives and have more empathy and understanding of those around us.

[Natália Somsedíková · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really wonderful book full of knowledge and important stuff...I recommended it a lot

[Pat Rolston · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is absolutely wonderfully written given the authors hypothesis requiring serious academic grounding. It is first and foremost a book that will allow you to think and ponder questions that touch upon what it is that makes us human and better understand the essence of our motivations. The author is skilled at framing the subject using great historical references. I am not suggesting this is a lite read and that is large part of the magic in that some very technical information is written in a very understandable manner. You will learn and feel rewarded for the experience.

[Jake · Rating 5 out of 5]

I believe that I will look back at my neuropsychological studies as pre and post Jaak Paanksep. I am fortunate to have finally looked into affective neuroscience and feel grateful to Paanksep and his colleagues for decades of hard work giving this field the attention it is due. I have been saving 5 star ratings for books that strike me to my core and Archeology of the Mind has done that.

[Juan Hugues · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jaak Panksepp explica en este libro como es que las emociones humanas funcionan no en un sentido puramente psicológico, sino en un sentido también biológico y fisiológico.

[Hank · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book difficult to follow and eventually gave up trying to read it.

[Dennis Merimsky · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Treasure trove of insight into emotional systems in mammal brains
This book was a revelation for me. A book to be read and re-read. It is full of insights into the structure and function of human and animal brains. While it was certainly not an easy read, my efforts were richly rewarded. Jaak Panskepp, the main author, was a pioneering neuroscientist in the field of the neural mechanisms of emotion, and his rich insights are supplemented by his co-author, Lucy Biven, an expert in psychoanalysis. Together they produced a book whose wide scope and depth of analysis is supported by a wealth of experimental results. The book focuses on the seven basic affective systems of raw emotional feelings which are found in the ancient subcortical regions of all mammal brains, and constitute the emotional action network of our brain. Theses primary prcocess are : SEEKING (expectancy), FEAR (anxiety), RAGE (anger), LUST (sexual excitement), CARE (nurturance), PANIC/ GRIEF (sadness), and PLAY (social joy).Together they form a proto or core self, based on the adage "I feel therefore I am". They are considered to be universal ancient value structures because they teach all mammals to evaluate their experience in the world. The seeking system is the powerhouse for all the other processes : it generates dopamine which drives us to engage enthusiastically with the world, looking for ways to satisfy our survival needs (food, warmth) our lusts , our need to care and to play. It also helps us tackle fear by looking for a place of safety, grief by looking for a source of nurture. The seeking system resembles Freud's concept of libido which powers our actions.
Because animals do not have the adult human capacity to inhibit or disguise their emotion, affective neuroscience studies the behavior of animals and infers their corresponding feelings. Panskepp discovered that rats laugh when tickled and chose to be tickled again. It is also apparent that many animals love to play e.g squirrels. The stimulation of animal brains enables us to examine their like or dislike reaction, while the effects of brain chemicals on them can also be tested.
Panskepp believes that physical and social play are vital to mammal development and that a deficiency may diminish the ability to control hyperactive urges. There may also be a connection between REM sleep and play because in both situations (play and dreams) we integrate emotional events.
I learnt from this book, that the gender of the body and the mind develop independently in different chemical processes before birth. This means that homosexuality and lesbianism are simply a mismatch between the gender of the mind and the gender of the body.
In future, new medicines will be developed (a process which has already started), based on the chemistry of our affects and they will be used together with psychotherapy to treat mental illness more effectively and in the reframing and reconsolidation of past experiences. Psychotherapy and affective neuroscience will become partners in the therapeutic process.
What a great read.

[Stephen Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author introduces this as a book for laypersons and therapists looking to learn about affective neuropsychology and the potential for improving therapeutic outcomes. Given the extensive specialized jargon in the text I suspect he’s not spent much time communicating with laypersons or therapists. Nonetheless, armed with several dictionaries and a stubbornness some found questionable, I finished the book today and am giving it five stars.

The discussion of affective emotions (the author describes these as the basis of core personality) as arising from the pre-cortical brains of all mammals rather than the prevailing view that animals lack most emotions and human emotions are different because they arise from our unique, late-evolutionary cerebral cortex, is comprehensive and convincing. That Panksepp labored all of his professional life to get sufficient funding for serious research of his theories and failing at that, despite a lot of evidence supporting his preliminary conclusions, insists that more research would dispel the doubters.

I am uncomfortable with his belief that we must do animal research on living mammalian brains to truly understand our own, but I appreciate his insistence that we treat all sentient beings as having feelings and the desire to eliminate suffering related to feelings through more effective psychological and limited, but appropriate pharmacological intervention. And he expresses regret that there is not a less invasive and harmful, for the animal subjects, way to learn what we need to know.

The book is from 2012, its author died of cancer in 2017, and the research does continue to slog ahead. As an introduction to common feelings that appear hard-wired in all mammalian brains and the likelihood that electrical and chemical abnormalities in the internal processes underlying them is the root of most psychic pain is so much simpler than the complex contortions researchers have gone through to separate humans from animals and locate our emotions in a part of the brain that is lacking in all but a very few species. This book is Ockham’s Razor for simplifying one of the longest sought answers in brain research and is worthy of more attention from the science community and its patrons.

Sorry for my bloated sentences in this review, but this truly densely crafted book is too complex for me to present in a tighter frame.

[David Randall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ever since I read Mark Solms, The Hidden Spring, I've been increasingly interested in emotions as the root of human consciousness and experience, and this feels like the perfect next step in that exploration. Panksepp sets himself up as the opposition to the Lisa Feldman Barrett's of the world (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...) who would say that emotions don't have clear lines and are mostly social constructions. He talks about core emotional systems (seeking, rage, fear, lust, care, panic and play), which have clear expressions in humans and animals and can be easily excited or dampened with direct simulation to certain parts of the brain. Like Solms (who I believe leaned a lot on Panksepp's work) he says affects (emotions) are the essense of consciousness, they are the ancestral memories stored in DNA and meant to be experienced to keep us safe and help us pass on our genes. So many good bits felt instantly applicable and relatable. He said that grief in adults is actually the same mechanism that triggers panic in children. He talks a lot about oxytocin and it's affects in both lust and care and how endogenous opioids literally addict us to our love ones, similar to how narcotics addict people to the drugs themselves. In a riff on Descartes he said it's not "I think therefore I am," but "I feel therefore I am." If your are curious about how your mind works I couldn't recommend this more highly.

[Omar HP · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is important to take into consideration that this book was not exclusively written by the intellectual author of the ideas presented. I mean Jaak Panksepp. On the other hand, one should consider that this book is not for the general public, even though it has that intention, the technical language constantly used makes it difficult to follow if you don’t have at least some background in the subject. Something else, I didn’t like, is the fact that the author sometimes spends a lot of time talking about hypotheses, about why things probably are working the way they are. This is interesting, but it can make the read to be a long one, specially if you’re only interested in the facts already proven. Also, it can get too iterative. The same facts keep being repeated on and on, which can get to be annoying.

Despite it all, it’s a good book, it’s truly inspiring what Panksepp found out, and how it can work with psychoanalysis. I have big hopes for his work, and Mark Solms’. Also, at the ending of the book, the author briefly explains in one sentence why this book can't be more simple, and you can actually understand the heart that was put on it.

[Aaron Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Raw affects exist in subcortical brain regions which are much older than any neocortical regions. Animals have emotions that evolved long ago.


All mammalian brains are composed of seven common emotional systems—seeking, lust, rage, fear, care, grief, and play.


Chapter 1 Ancestral Passions
Chapter 2 The Evolution of Affective Consciousness: Studying Emotional Feelings in Other Animals
Chapter 3 The SEEKING System: Brain Sources of Eager Anticipation, Desire, Euphoria, and the Quest for Everything
Chapter 4 The Ancestral Sources of RAGE
Chapter 5 The Ancestral Roots of FEAR
Chapter 6 Beyond Instincts: Learning and the Affective Foundations of Memory
Chapter 7 LUSTful Passions of the Mind: From Reproductive Urges to Romantic Love
Chapter 8 Nurturing Love: The CARE System
Chapter 9 Born to Cry: The PANIC/GRIEF System and the Genesis of Life-Sustaining Social Bonds
Chapter 10 PLAYful Dreamlike Circuits of the Brain: The Ancestral Sources of Social Joy and Laughter
Chapter 11 Toward a Neurobiology of the Soul: The Core SELF and the Genesis of Primary-Process Feelings
Chapter 12 Brain Emotional Systems and Affective Qualities of Mental Life: From Animal Affects to Human Psychotherapeutics
Chapter 13 Philosophical Reflections and Complaints: Can We Go From Mice to Men and Back Again?

[david · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a brilliant piece of work that provides a simultaneously rigorous and approachable overview to the emerging understanding of affective (emotion-related) neuroscience. Panksepp deftly presents the science at a level of detail that will be satisfying for those in related fields, but approachable to all. Beyond that however is his incredible humanism and attention to the bigger pictures--consciousness, sentience, meaning in life, inborn neurologically-based values. This work has major relevance to psychiatry and psychotherapy which are my own professional domains. Also interesting is his explanation of the relative place of affective neuroscience to the general neuroscience field--that there have historically been strong cognitive and behaviorist biases inhibiting an exploration of the neuroscience of emotional life. An excellent read overall.

[Yahya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yazar kitapta temel olarak memeli beyninin subkortikal bölgelerinde var olduğunu iddia ettiği yedi temel afektif(duygulanım) sistem odaklanmış. Bu sistemler sırasıyla ARAYIŞ (beklenti), KORKU (kaygı), ÖFKE (kızgınlık), ARZU (cinsel heyecan), BAKIM (besleme), PANİK/YAS (üzüntü) ve OYUN (sosyal neşe)'dur. Kitapta bu sistemlere her bir bölüm ayrılmış ve her bölümün içinde sitemlerle ile ilgili deneysel çalışmalar ve nöroanatomik altyapılara yer verilmiş. Tabi bu çalışmaların hepsi hayvan deneyleri. Onun üzerinden insanlara dair çıkarımlar yapılmış. Kitabın dili daha çok hayvan deneyleri ve nöroanatomi bilgileri içerdiği için genel okurlara çok hitap etmeyebilir. Ben ilgili ve alanıma yakın olmasına rağmen iki aylık sürede anca bitirdim. Yine de insana ve hayvanlara dair evrimsel duygulara merakınız varsa önerebileceğim bir kitap.

[Jeanne Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is awesome. I'll begin by saying that I think I understood about 10% of what it said, but I took to heart the advice offered by Daniel Siegel in the Forward, to let go of the panicky "good-student" mentality that wants to master every detail, and just read with a playful, interested willingness to see what kind of understanding emerges as you progress through the book.
What I emerge with is 1) a greatly increased appreciation for the affective lives of animals, and a sense of kinship with them, and 2) dare I say it? more clarity about what emotions actually are, how they arise and what function they serve, and what their relationship is with the more cognitive parts of our experience that we (perhaps deludedly) feel that we understand better. I look forward to a second pass through this book, perhaps after taking a break and reading a novel!

[Siim Rahnu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Antud teose puhul häirib see, et mõni üksik väide, millele vähem pühendutakse, on pikitult ja möödaminnes tehtud ning ei oma sugugi tõenduslikku tagapõhja, ent jääb pikemate ja tõestatud teooriate taustal kõlama - eksitav spekulatsioon? Enamus juttu on aga siiski teadusliku pagasiga varustatud teooriad. Emotsioonide uurimine ja afektiivne neuroteadus on tänuväärne ja ikka veel väheuuritud valdkond. Läbi ja lõhki mänguentusiastina on hea, et on juures veel üks allikas, millele mängu-uurija/pedagoog ja praktik viidata saab. Mängu kui emotsionaalse telje käsitlemine on huvitav ja isiklike kogemustega ühtiv valdkond. Hea, et ka klassikaline neuroteadus ja psühholoogia on surma- ja sugutungi juurest edasi arenenud. Panksepp on kahtlemata huvitav leid teadusmaastikul. Korralik neuroteaduslik kirjandus. Hea, et on varustatud skeemide ja joonistega, kuigi nende puhul on vahel tunne, et on isegi raskemini mõistetavad kui tekstimassiivid. Populaarteaduslik on ehk pisut liialdatud kategooria antud raamatu kohta, ta on siiski pisut rohkem. Veidi häirib mind siiamaani inimese taandamine loomaks - seda tegid biheivioristid ja seda teeb ka Panksepa evolutsionistlik teooria. Aga saan aru, et see on pigem ideoloogiline usuküsimus kui asi, mille üle põhimõtteliselt vaielda. Selles, et loomadel on emotsioonid, ma ju ei kahtlegi ning seda Panksepp edukalt ka tõestab. Ning mine tea- suure tõenäosusega on siin peidus mitmedki vastused inimese vaimse tervise küsimustele. Seda, et mängulisus nt ATH laste õppimisel ja õpetamisel abiks on, olen isegi kogenud.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many key takeaways in this textbook - like going back to college, but starting off with the neuroscientific research that occurred after I graduated. The authors identify and painstakingly explain the fine nuances of feelings versus cognition and the similarities of the human experience to animal experience in relation to feelings and emotions. All backed by a multitude of scientific studies, including those that don't necessarily support the authors' hypotheses. In that sense, providing a broader picture of the struggles of accurately and completely mapping the BrainMind continuum and understanding it all in terms of the bigger picture. Fascinating read!

[Feras · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book explains the current theory on how the primitive part of our brain, which is also shared with other mammals, can produce subjective experiences of emotions. After reading the book, although I am not an expert in this topic, I can form an understanding on the evolution of emotions in animals and us humans. The book is written for a broad audience, however, I found chapter 11 and 12 more difficult to comprehend without stopping and rereading some parts.

Great book! Thanks for the authors to choose to write it the way they did.

[Leonardo]

Los repertorios complejos de acciones que observamos son resultado de la coordinación exquisita de las actividades de aquellos núcleos que aportan de ejecución de una orden y cooperación bien concertados. Jaak Panksepp ha dedicado toda una vida de investigación a este proceso de ejecución.

En busca de Spinoza Pág.65

[mono · Rating 5 out of 5]

α - Jordan Peterson recommendation - Oops, looks like he recommends 📚Affective Neuroscience by the same author. I was weary of diving into neuroscience because of an article published in January 2017 where a scientist attempted to understand a microprocessor using techniques from neuroscience 📜PLOS. They failed - concluding that data analytics needed improvement to filter important data from noise.

Ω(=,Î,β) - An interesting albeit difficult read - a collection of thoughts & implications on Panksepp's pioneering research.