Momentary Smiling
Nothing says "Read Me" like an ad on someone's webpage, completely blank except for the title The Origin of Emotions, and, "This book identifies the trigger, purpose and effect of each emotion." So who could resist? I read it.
With almost Scientological zeal, the author, Mark Devon (who obviously didn't graduate from Harvard, or he would have mentioned it) categorizes our emotions. Categorizes them into 54 groups, as a matter of fact, which you will see if you download the PDF from his website. In case you aren't interested in waiting for a long PDF to download, here are a few of his choices:
Still, I can't help but recommend that you read his book. Only the first eighteen chapters are free (out of 59) but half a loaf is better than no bread. He makes you pay for the juicy bits, like the chapter on "female clitoral pleasure" (an emotion that has inspired poets and pornographers since Shakespeare) but there is plenty to love in what he offers. And Christmas is coming up! For the holidays, give your friends some insight into the mind of a man who... well, who is very different from you and me.
For instance, he always relates everything back to evolutionary psychology, like an alternate-universe Freud. But instead of some maxim about sexuality pervading all things, the lesson he wants you to extract from his work? "You're always doing what's best for the species." To me, the lesson of this book, the real lesson, is clear: If you think you might develop schizophrenia, don't study evolutionary psychology.
With almost Scientological zeal, the author, Mark Devon (who obviously didn't graduate from Harvard, or he would have mentioned it) categorizes our emotions. Categorizes them into 54 groups, as a matter of fact, which you will see if you download the PDF from his website. In case you aren't interested in waiting for a long PDF to download, here are a few of his choices:
- Grandmaternal Love
- Monogynistic Grief (AKA "The woman I love is dead")
- Adulterous Guilt
- Prolonged Frowning
- Cute
- Male Nipple Pleasure (Cosmopolitan was right!)
- Blushing
Heartbreak is triggered by making another woman happy, not by having sex with her. Women do not feel heartbreak if their man has sex with another woman. Women do feel heartbreak if their man buys another woman presents. Men have sex to make themselves happy. Men buy a woman presents to make her happy. If a man wants to make another woman happy, he is in love with her. If a man is in love with another woman, he cannot be in love with the heartbroken woman.I'm going to say it: This is demented. You might think, well Alex, maybe he's writing this as a scholarly publication. You can't expect carefully crafted sentences from academics. But as far as I can tell, he lists no sources for anything. Unless he did the research himself, and doesn't mention having done it, he has pulled all of these facts right out of his mind.
Still, I can't help but recommend that you read his book. Only the first eighteen chapters are free (out of 59) but half a loaf is better than no bread. He makes you pay for the juicy bits, like the chapter on "female clitoral pleasure" (an emotion that has inspired poets and pornographers since Shakespeare) but there is plenty to love in what he offers. And Christmas is coming up! For the holidays, give your friends some insight into the mind of a man who... well, who is very different from you and me.
For instance, he always relates everything back to evolutionary psychology, like an alternate-universe Freud. But instead of some maxim about sexuality pervading all things, the lesson he wants you to extract from his work? "You're always doing what's best for the species." To me, the lesson of this book, the real lesson, is clear: If you think you might develop schizophrenia, don't study evolutionary psychology.
posted by apk01004 at 3:52 PM
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