Emotions are complex mental states that resist downsizing. They are visceral reactions as well as beliefs about the world. They are culturally learned performances as well as spontaneous outbursts. They are intimate and private, but gain their substance and significance only from interpersonal and social frameworks. And just as our emotions in any given moment exhibit this complex structure, so their history is not singular but plural. The history of emotions is where the history of ideas meets the history of the body, and where the history of subjectivity meets social and cultural history.
In this Very Short Introduction, Thomas Dixon traces the historical ancestry of emotions ranging from sadness, melancholy, anger and terror to joy, ecstasy, sympathy and love. The picture that emerges is a complex one, showing that the states we group today as "emotions" are the product of long and varied historical changes in language, culture, beliefs and ways of life. The sad anger of Achilles in the Iliad, the happiness of America's Declaration of Independence, the love of humanity that fueled crusades and revolutions through the ages, and the righteous anger of modern protest movements all look different when seen through this lens.
With examples from ancient, medieval and modern cultures, including forgotten emotions and the creation of modern emotional regimes, this Very Short Introduction sheds new light on our emotions today by looking at what historians can tell us about their past. Dixon explains the key ideas of historians of emotions as he has developed them in conversation with psychology and psychiatry, with particular attention to ideas about basic emotions, psychological structure, and affect theory.
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