Abstract
A presentation of American psychologist Joseph LeDoux’s research and biography opens this chapter, followed by LeDoux’s discussion about emotion-cognition interdependence from the perspective of his research results. Witkowski and LeDoux discuss the problem of colloquial psychological concepts in the development of science and the distinction between survival circuits and emotions. They then devote their attention to psychotherapy and therapeutic methods that are incompatible with how our brains work and analyze recovered memory therapy. Ethical issues connected with memory reconsolidation or memory erasure research are also part of their conversation. The analysis of LeDoux’s achievements, his current research plans, the questions psychology faces and its future end this chapter. The interview also contains LeDoux’s advice for young psychologists.
Start by asking what you want to understand about behavior, mind, and/or brain rather than by choosing a method you want to acquire. The questions are eternal but the methods are fleeting.
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Selected Readings
Gazzaniga, M. S., & LeDoux, J. E. (1978). The integrated mind. New York: Plenum Press.
LeDoux, J. E. (1996). The emotional brain. New York: Simon and Schuster.
LeDoux, J. E. (2002). Synaptic self. New York: Viking.
LeDoux, J. E. (2015). Anxious: Using the brain to understand and treat fear and anxiety. New York: Viking.
LeDoux, J. E. (2019). The deep history of ourselves: The four-billion-year story of how we got conscious brains. New York: Viking.
LeDoux, J. E. (2020a, March 9). How does the non—Conscious become conscious? Current Biology, 30, R1–R4.
LeDoux, J. E. (2020b, June 8). Thoughtful feelings. Current Biology, 30, R1–R5.
LeDoux, J. E., Debiec, J., & Moss, H. (Eds.). (2003, September). The self: From soul to brain (Vol. 1001, pp. 295–304). New York: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.
LeDoux, J. E., & Hirst, W. (1986). Mind and brain: Dialogues in cognitive neuroscience. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Mobbs, D., & LeDoux, J. E. (Eds.). (2018). Survival circuits: Current opinions in behavioral sciences. New York: Elsevier.
Shiromani, P. J., Keane, T. M., & LeDoux, J. E. (Eds.). (2009). Post-traumatic stress disorder: Basic science and clinical practice. New York: Humana Press.
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Witkowski, T. (2020). Joseph E. LeDoux: Fear, Anxiety, Emotions, Consciousness and Evolution. In: Shaping Psychology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50003-0_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50003-0_9
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