For most of human history, our emotions were thought to be a small set of crude states. Someone was angry, or they were sad; they were fearful or they were happy. It was believed that each only caused specific behaviours - the sad would cry, and the happy would laugh. And there was sense that these things called emotions were fundamentally at odds with our reason and logic; that feelings were passionate, unruly and got us in to trouble.

But over the last decade, a revolution in science's understanding of the brain has led to a fundamental re-evaluation of the role feelings play in our day-to-day lives. Via maps of the mind, electromagnetic fields, and depression-easing phone apps, acclaimed author and scientist Leonard Mlodinow explores how our emotions are born, the role they play in forming our thoughts and decisions, and how we can harness our feelings to thrive in the modern world.

Shot through with wit, lucid insight and extraordinary personal experience, Emotional is at once the definitive guide to the new science of feeling, as well as powerful call to rethink treatment for mental illness, our understanding of personal relationships, and ultimately our view of ourselves.