Molecules of Emotion

Why You Feel the Way You Feel

By: Candace B. Pert Ph.D.

Narrated by: Candace B. Pert Ph.D.

Length: 3 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

How do our thoughts and emotions affect our health? Are our bodies and minds distinct from one another or do they function together as parts of an interconnected system? Candace Pert - a neuroscientist whose extraordinary career began with her 1972 discovery of the opiate receptor - provides startling and decisive answers to these and other challenging questions that scientists and philosophers have pondered for centuries. From explaining the scientific basis of popular wisdom and phenomena like "gut feelings" to making comprehensible recent discoveries in cancer and AIDS research, Molecules of Emotion is an intellectual adventure of the highest order.

©1997 Candace B. Pert, Ph.D., All Rights Reserved (P)1997 Simon & Schuster Inc., All Rights Reserved

Critic reviews

"Finally, here is a Western scientist who has done the work to explain the unity of mind and matter, body and soul." (Deepak Chopra)

A great read

I have to agree with the earlier review, very enjoyable book. Good science, good story, good sense of humor.

Changed my Life, health & career

I love this book, when I first read it, I was a 27 yo graduate student battling auto immune diseases. Understanding what this book and her discoveries mean, can help you feel more empowered in your body too.

Fabulous pert

I love the information in this book.It has helped me a lot in the concept of body-mind

Candice Pert is a creative, innovative, scientist.

Candice Pert is an inspiration. She explains new complex science very well for the novice student. Thank you, Candice. I wish your male colleagues weren't anti feminist. They make so much trouble for smart women. It's so 19th century.

Meh

The title is misleading. This is more an autobiography of the author than an explanation of the biology of emotion.

I loved it

Her transformation To a person who understood the real reason for her research Into the spiritual aspects of Research And it's important in the scientific arena It was wonderful

Emotions=Brain+Body+Spiritual

I thought I knew about emotions, hehe, but my level of understanding was pre-school. And, now I know the FACTS to live responsibly. The best part about what I learned, is I can manage my emotions, and my emotions don't manage me. I didn't know I was blind emotionally, but now I can see!!! I highly recommend to anyone, male or female, young or old to listen to this audiobook.

I want the UNabridged version!

Love Candace! It was such fun to hear her voice since she was the reader! I miss her. And the world will never be the same.
However there should be an audible version of the entire book. Every wording hatbox was important. Now I must go read the physical book again, because I miss the parts left out of the Audible book.

An interesting look at the science of emotion

Candace Pert, a neuroscientist and discoveror of the opiate receptor, recounts both the intricate relationship between mind, body, and emotions, and her own career uncovering those connections and the neurochemical basis of them. Beginning her career in the early 1970s, gender was an even bigger obstacle than it is now, which no cultural or legal expectation that it shouldn't be. Sometimes she had to fight for recognition of her contributions; other times she had to fight to be able to do the work at all.

But along the way, she made major discoveries, and had life-changing experiences. The mind-body dichotomy was still unquestioned scientific orthodoxy in her early days. She doesn't say, but I will: Rene Descartes has a lot to answer for. Pert's work with neuropeptides and their receptors helps to rebuild the essential unity of the person, mind, body, and emotions, and uncover the connections between our emotional health and our physical health.

There are times when this goes right up to edge of woo-woo, but it doesn't cross over. Pert is spiritual, religious, and very much a scientist. No, that's not a contradiction or a paradox. She's quite open about her beliefs, and the interrelations among the different aspects. Her central, guiding principle is a commitment to truth.

It's a fascinating story. There are times when I find it quite frustrating. It is, however, well worth reading if you are interested in the topic.

I bought this audiobook.

is what it is!

I had read the book about the time it may have appeared at Audible,(2003?) though my download of the Audible version is just last month.

From the title, one would expect it, the book or audiobook, to be more biochemically oriented and less about the various politics associated with biomedical discovery and how discoveries come into the public's knowledge. However, I already knew about this. maybe it could have been called "The Politics of Emotion" maybe an allusion to RD Laing's famous book.

On a positive note, I think it is very valuable to have a document with the actual author doing the narration as in this case. Whatever limitation may appear in the diction etc. is more than compensated by delivering the listener (and in my case) or former reader to very much the "soul" of the matter, because the voice nuances maybe most definitely represent the author's soul!