Beyond

An Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales is a 1995 book by neurologist Oliver Sacks consisting of seven medical case histories of individuals with neurological conditions such as autism and Tourette syndrome. In addition, Sacks studies his patients outside the hospital, often traveling considerable distances to interact with his subjects in their own environments.

This understanding of emotion has been around since Plato. But what if it is wrong? In How Emotions Are Made, pioneering psychologist and neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett draws on the latest scientific evidence to reveal that our common-sense ideas about emotions are dramatically, even dangerously, out of date – and that we have been paying the price. Emotions aren't universally pre-programmed in our brains and bodies; rather they are psychological experiences that each of us constructs based on our unique personal history, physiology and environment.

How are we connected to one another and to our environment? Gregory Bateson approaches these sociological questions and places them in the context of systems theory, complexity and the human sciences.

Our choices are irrational: we tend to overpay, consume and procrastinate. And yet they are predictable. Interesting read for anyone who wants to understand the mechanisms of our decision-making.