How Emotions Are Made: Interview with the Author Part 1 - The Body Budget

For the past six videos, I've been digging through Lisa Feldman Barrett's "How Emotions Are Made," and really trying to understand the Theory of Constructed Emotion. In these videos, we went from debunking some old ideas about the brain and emotions, to understanding Interoception, Emotional Concepts, Patterning, Projection, and most importantly to me, the idea of the Body Budget, which is a great metaphor for understanding what our brains are doing.
Now, I took the idea of the Body Budget a bit far, and came up with some conclusions that push the limits of the metaphor. Thankfully, the author was kind enough to spend an hour with me to clarify some of these ideas, and then to really go deep with them.
This first part of the interview focuses on the body budget, and introduces the concepts of Allostasis and Prediction Error. In the second part of this interview, that's where we go really deep, and apply these ideas to language learning, Buddhism and mindfulness, behavior, Alexithymia, and the Glorious Circumplex. Check out part 2 here:
☞ • How Emotions Are Made:...
Now, while I'm just trying to popularize the science and the ideas of Lisa Feldman Barrett's work, these videos are a poor substitute for her actual work. She's in the top 1% of cited scientists in the world. She really knows her stuff. And there's a lot in her books that I didn't cover. If you're interested in Illness and Chronic Conditions, Animal Rights, or the Criminal System, she applies her understanding of the brain and emotions in these areas, with really interesting conclusions that I won't cover in these videos. Check out her books "How Emotions Are Made" and "Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain".
☞ lisafeldmanbarrett.com
You can also find her on
☞ / lisa-feldman-barrett
☞ / lfeldmanbarrett
Otherwise, if you found this interview interesting, it's my dream to do more of them with the authors that I'm reading, and I'd love your support on Patreon. Patrons get these videos ad-free, and a day in advance, along with the scripts as well.
☞ / simonsbookclub
If you'd like to talk about these ideas some more, we're discussing this book, and the other books I've covered, over on the Discord. We're recently getting more into looking at Alexithymia. Check it out!
☞ / discord
If you’re new to this series, here’s the playlist with the first six videos so far:
☞ • How Emotions Are Made:...
0:00 Intro and Recap
1:14 Recipe for Emotions
2:09 Body Budgets
4:10 Hoarding for the Budget
5:56 What is Allostasis
7:42 Maintaining Balance
9:07 The Cost of Living
10:23 Correcting my Misunderstanding
11:34 Investing in the Body
13:16 Better Predictions
15:12 Learning Stuff
17:01 The Cost of Education
18:07 Putting it All Together
20:19 And onto the next video…
#psychology #booktube #neuroscience

[@radiomandelbrot5868]

17:07 my scientist dad always told me as a kid, when I was learning stuff and my brain felt uncomfortable: "That's just your neurons making new connections." And like an athlete learns to embrace the sensations of effort, I started welcoming that learning sensation as something beneficial, and being able to distinguish from actually harmful stimuli. I noticed that many people hate feeling this way, though, almost as if they feel it's menacing, and I've found it hard to explain to them how it works similarly as a muscle that burns from all those reps.

[@eatyourkimchi]

As soon as I started reading your comment I thought about the muscle burn from exercise. That's spot on. I used to not enjoy going to the gym, but now that I've done it for so long, I enjoy the feeling of each rep. I know what I'm doing, and I know growth is happening :D

[@chickenofthesea-od7hb]

The part 2 on your other channel is private so I can't go and watch it. Could you make it public?

[@8harbor]

u know... im starting to come around simon. i kinda wish u had a separate channel beyond the book club. u might reach a different audience who could benefit from the help since many ppl dont get around to learning about psychology and the amazing resources and writers out now.. thanks for the insights - it's still a little awkward to find it on this channel but who knows maybe ppl will move on/ accept with time.

[@MarkandMarie]

Thanks Simon. I needed this.

[@ZeldaMertens]

I love Psychology. Thank you for this Simon.

[@eatyourkimchi]

I’m glad you’re into it to :D

[@mariastawski8553]

Great and fascinating interview. !!!!

[@katp9973]

i enjoyed hearing about the body budget. very interesting😊

[@Tootie0105]

Thank you Simon 😊😊

[@berzerius]

👍