The Happy Brain: The Science of Where Happiness Comes From, and Why

Description

Do you want to be happy? If so - read on. This book has all the answers! Not really. Sorry. But it does have some very interesting questions, and at least the occasional answer. The enthusiasm for and expectation of happiness are so widespread today that fundamental questions about it are often overlooked. For starters, the most basic question of all: where does happiness come from? Is it your brain - a mere concoction of chemicals, or network of neurons? Is it in fact your gut? [Spoiler alert: yes. Sort of.] Or is it external? Is it love or sex or money or success? And what are these doing to our brains anyway? In The Happy Brain, Neuroscientist Dean Burnett delves into our most private selves to investigate what causes happiness, where it comes from, and why we are so desperate to hang onto it. The questions he raises are ones we so rarely ask today, but they address a major part of what it means to be a modern-day human.

Dean Burnett is a neuroscientist and stand-up comedian. He is 32, lives in Cardiff, based at the Institute of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neurosciences at Cardiff University. He is also most-read blogger on the Guardian Science network. He started 'Brain Flapping' three years ago and the blog has been viewed over 9,000,000 times. His is the author of The Idiot Brain: A Neuroscientist Explains What Your Head Is Really Up To.