Dr Rob Boddice is a historian of science, medicine and the emotions, based at Freie Universitaet Berlin and McGill University, Montreal. His previous books include Pain: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2017) and The History of Emotions (Manchester … Continue reading
Ed Brooker began his PhD on the Living with Feeling project in October 2017. He completed his BA in History at the University of Cambridge, and holds master’s degrees from both Durham University and Birkbeck, University of London. His work … Continue reading
Dr Una McIlvenna is Lecturer in Early Modern Literature at the University of Kent. From 2011-2014 she was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Australian Research Council’s Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions, based at the University of … Continue reading
Watch out folks. There is a murky world lurking behind the scenes, a sinister cabal of policy-makers, psychologists, CEOs, advertizers and life-coaches, watching you, measuring you, nudging you, monitoring your every smile, all to try and make you happy. We … Continue reading
Should liberal governments try to cultivate certain emotional states in their citizens? This is the interesting contention of the latest book from Martha C. Nussbaum, the leading philosopher of the emotions. In Political Emotions: Why Love Matters for Justice, Nussbaum … Continue reading
I have recently returned from a journey deep into the warm, pulsating heart of the happiness movement. Last Thursday I took part in a conference on Positive Psychology at Wellington College (the pioneer of well-being classes), and then I went … Continue reading
I’m a great fan of Professor Jerome Kagan, the eminent Harvard psychologist, who has done important work on the role of the amygdala in emotional disorders like social anxiety. I admire his humane appreciation for both the sciences and the … Continue reading
The UN Happiness Conference last week looks to have been a fascinating event. The Prime Minister of Bhutan sent me a giant Willy Wonka-esque invitation, for which I’m grateful, but wouldn’t pay my air-fare, for which I’m lingeringly resentful (not … Continue reading
Yesterday, I went to the British Academy, to hear Richard Easterlin, the father of happiness economics, present his latest thinking, together with Andrew Oswald of Warwick University. Easterlin asked the provocative question: does higher income raise happiness in poorer countries? … Continue reading