Heaven and Hell: The Psychology of the Emotions

Emotions “have come to assume an increasingly dominant role in our lives,” argues psychiatrist Burton (Hypersanity) in this wide-ranging and impassioned survey. In 29 essays, he considers feelings including ecstasy, pride, and anger, as well as “emotional expressions” such as kissing. In “Embarrassment, Shame, and Guilt,” he teases out the difference between the three, explaining that embarrassment is a feeling of discomfort, while “shame says, ‘I am bad,’ [and] guilt says, ‘I did something bad.’ ” In “Boredom,” he meditates on the “deeply unpleasant state of unmet arousal” as being universal, and recommends meditation to cope with it, while in “Ecstasy” he writes that the defining trait of euphoric joy is “the dissolution of boundaries, with the ego merging into all of being.” Most of his analyses lean on philosophy more than psychology, and some of his interpretations are dubious: he considers depression as a mental disorder to be little more than “a socially constructed dustbin for all manner of human suffering,” and in “Sadomasochism,” he writes that “in almost every relationship, one partner is more attached than the other.” Still, there is much to ponder, and lay readers will enjoy most of Burton’s entertaining theories. (Self-published)