The superb researcher, humanist, and author of Descartes' Error binds the body to the spirit in an exploration
of consciousness 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.
Table of Contents
Pt. I Introduction
Ch. 1. Stepping into the Light
Pt. II Feeling and Knowing
Ch. 2. Emotion and Feeling
Ch. 3. Core Consciousness
Ch. 4. The Hint Half Hinted
Pt. III A Biology for Knowing
Ch. 5. The Organism and the Object
Ch. 6. The Making of Core Consciousness
Ch. 7. Extended Consciousness
Ch. 8. The Neurology of Consciousness
Pt. IV Bound to Know
Ch. 9. Feeling Feelings
Ch. 10. Using Consciousness
Ch. 11. Under the Light
Appendix Notes on Mind and Brain
Endnotes
Acknowledgments
Index
About the Author
