Part of the Casswiki article series Books
The Archaeology of Mind: Neuroevolutionary Origins of Human Emotions is a book by Jaak Panksepp and Lucy Biven, first published in 2012. It is Panksepp’s latest exposition on affective neuroscience, the neuroscientific study of emotions, and particularly the role played by the subcortical brain circuits we share with all mammals and which give rise to basic emotions.
Research has identified seven brain circuits that all mammals have in common. These circuits produce “primary affects”, the raw felt affects that motivate behavior. In humans, these basic emotions – their characteristics and the way they are experienced – are in turn further shaped and refined (giving rise to many variations) by higher brain circuits and processing. The basic affective circuits can briefly be described as follows, using Panksepp’s naming:
- SEEKING (motivation system, drives exploration and activity in general)
- RAGE (“fight” system, drives hostility, anger, rage, and attack)
- FEAR (“fight” and “freeze” system, drives fear, fright, cautiousness, immobility, and escape)
- LUST (sexual drive system, drives sexual tension and craving, “courting” behaviors, and sexual activity)
- CARE (social care and nurturing system, drives tender and caring feelings and interactions)
- PANIC/GRIEF (separation distress system, drives sorrow, panic, and depression)
- PLAY (playful behavior system, drives playful interaction and positively motivated competition)
These systems form a major part of our instinctive substratum, i.e. what drives us, shapes our sense of meaning and our perceptions, and our basic ways of interacting with reality.
Panksepp’s earlier book Affective Neuroscience contains most of the same information, presented in a somewhat more concise and structured way. The Archaeology of Mind is an updated, popularizing presentation which is less structured and perhaps easier to understand.
External links
- Cassiopaea Forum: Affective Neuroscience – Dr Panksepp (Summary, excerpts and discussion of Panksepp’s earlier book Affective Neuroscience. It relates what can be learned from Panksepp’s work to other paradigms, helping to bring perspective and give a unified understanding.)
- Shrink Rap Radio #329 – The Emotional Foundation of Mind with Jaak Panksepp, PhD (Interview with discussion of the history of Panksepp’s work, the affective brain circuits found and the terminology, and various other things.)