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Reading Emotional Ignorance, Cardiff author Dean Burnett’s superb delve into the scientific explanations of how emotions work has helped my own self-care rituals: it understands that these matters are complicated, and aids the reader’s understanding too. For me it worked well, I thought it lent flavour to the narration and prevented the science parts from getting too dry, but equally I can see how someone who was more affected by COVID19 than me (who was very lucky on multiple fronts) may find the continued reference to it triggering. Finally, I have both book and Audible copies of this work and it feels like I have spent many hours wanting to value the book more than I have. Less than three months after his father's demise, Burnett encountered the more difficult aspects of being a caretaker.
Suffering from grief of losing his father in the pandemic of COVID, this neuroscientist describes how his emotions interacted with the world of that time to show me that while they weren't necessarily comfortable they did allow him to survive the blows that came his way. I do feel mean for not giving this book a full 5 star rating, but I am putting the emotion to one side for the moment.This experience has taught Burnett to not disregard or reject the emotions he’s feeling, as emotional pain is equivalent to pain caused by physical injury or illness.
Taboo feelings are questioned, then explained, in a way laypeople can understand; the importance of dreaming, even nightmares, to one’s memory is put into context. Tevens merkte ik dat de schrijver niet goed tot zijn ‘punt’ kon komen, dus wat het nou precies was wat hij duidelijk wilde maken. Much like Adam Kay’s This Is Going To Hurt, Burnett links humorous and touching personal stories with scientific knowhow. Written during lockdown after a personal loss Burnett’s own emotional journey and struggle to understand what he was (and still is) feeling infuses the book with personality and insight. What I didn’t expect though, was to find woven through this well written popular science book such a heartfelt love letter to the authors father, wife and family.My one real quibble with it is that I would have preferred him not to describe his previous employment in the anatomy department as being awful, repeatedly. Dean Burnett is a neuroscientist and psychiatry lecturer at the Centre for Medical Education at Cardiff University and is the author of the Guardian’s most-read science blog, Brain Flapping. Burnett lost me when he talked about how, because of his type of loss, he experienced more anger than usual. Due to the pandemic, Burnett is unable to express his emotions to friends and family, which may affect their relationships.