Martha Nussbaum is the author of Cultivating Humanity. "For a long time, I have been working on the emotions, currently a very rich field of interdisciplinary work. Here are some of the recent books in different disciplines that have impressed me most. (I try to pick two in each discipline.)" Philosophy Ronald De Sousa. The Rationality of Emotion. MIT Press, 1987. A fine, detailed account of the cognitive role of emotions, informed by biology and psychology. Michael Stocker (with Elizabeth Hegeman). Valuing Emotions. Cambridge University Press, 1996. An excellent account of the relationship between emotion and judgment, well argued and informed by work in other disciplines. Cognitive Psychology Richard Lazarus. Emotion and Adaptation. Oxford University Press, 1991. A magisterial work by a leading thinker, which restores cognitive appraisal to a central role in the analysis of emotions. Keith Oatley. Best Laid Schemes. Cambridge University Press, 1992. A subtle and philosophically tenacious account with experimental underpinnings. Anthropology Jean Briggs. Never in Anger: Portrait of an Eskimo Family. Harvard University Press, 1970. A classic study of the emotion concepts of the Utku, an Eskimo society who judge (as did the ancient Stoics) that anger is always inappropriate in adults. Catherine Lutz. Unnatural Emotions: Everyday Sentiments on a Micronesian Atoll. University of Chicago Press, 1988. A fine study of the emotion concepts of the Ifaluk, showing how physical conditions and social norms shape a society's taxonomy of emotions. Psychoanalysis Daniel N. Stern. The Interpersonal World of the Infant. Basic Books, 1985; see also his briefer Diary of a Baby, Basic Books, 1990. A compelling account of the development of cognition and emotion in young infants, by an analyst who is also a leading experimentalist. D.W. Winnicott. The Maturational Processes and the Facilitating Environment. International University Press, 1965. A wonderful, humane book that has never been surpassed; contains famous essays such as "The Capacity to Be Alone" and "The Development of the Capacity for Concern." Biology Joseph LeDoux. The Emotional Brain: The Mysterious Underpinnings of Life. A fascinating study of how emotion memory is laid down in animals, with potential implications for the understanding of human emotions. Frans B.M. de Waal. Good Natured: The Origins of Right and Wrong in Humans and Other Animals. Harvard University Press, 1996. A wonderful account of altruism and compassion in primate societies. "And finally, one book that defies classification. The best book I know on animal emotions, it is written by a philosopher who is also a great writer, and a terrific observer of animals:" George Pitcher. The Dogs Who Came to Stay. Dutton, 1995. The story of Lupa and Remus, dogs whose capacity for love transformed the lives of two humans. Return to the Writers Read List

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