How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain

by Lisa Feldman Barrett

Emotions are real, but not in the objective sense that molecules or neurons are real. They are real in the same sense that money is real—that is, hardly an illusion, but a product of human agreement.

Emotions are not reactions to the world. You are not a passive receiver of sensory input but an active constructor of your emotions.

You cannot reverse-engineer a recipe for an instance of fear from a feeling of fear.

We must not confuse physical reality, such as changes in heart rate or widened eyes, with the social reality of emotion concepts.

we are architects of our own experience.

you feel what your brain believes.