Antonio Damasio

Emotions and the feelings are not a luxury, they are a means of communicating our states of mind to others. But they are also a way of guiding our own judgements and decisions. Emotions bring the body into the loop of reason.

Summary

Antonio Damasio is a Behavioral Neurologist and neuroscientist. His main interest is the Neurobiology of the mind, especially neural systems which serve memory, language, emotion, and Decision Making.

His research has shown that emotions play a central role in social cognition and decision making, and has helped to elucidate the connection between Neurological Activity and Emotions (see Psychological Apects of Biodanza).

Ideas

• His research has helped to elucidate the neural basis for the emotions and has shown that emotions play a central role in social cognition and decision-making.
• The Somatic-Marker Hypothesis proposes a mechanism by which emotional processes can guide (or bias) behavior, particularly decision-making.
• He believes that emotions are interated with both consciousness and the emergence of self and personhood.
• Consciousness, selfhood, and the emotions all spring ultimately from a single source: awareness of the current state of the body.
• Damasio proposes a whole hierarchy of selves:
  • The proto self - This is merely a short term collection of neural patterns of activity which represent the current state of the organism.
  • The core self - Represents the first, lowest level which deserves to be regarded as conscious, though this is the kind of immediate, unreflecting consciousness presumably possessed by animals in general, not just by human beings.
  • The autobiographical self - Draws on permanent (though modifiable) memories instead of just the immediate experiences which power the core self. At this point, there is a real, though still pre-linguistic, sense of self. Chimpanzees and probably dogs enjoy this level of consciousness.
  • A final layer of development, with greater use of longer-term memory, delivers the kind of foresighted, reflective consciousness which we typically associate with human beings.