The Book of Emotions. Feelings and Identity in the Digital Age

New book by Umberto Galimberti, a contemporary Italian philosopher and bestselling author in psychology and cultural studies, is published for the first time in Russian.

Mind and heart — categories that have been eternally opposed to each other in the European philosophical tradition. Even Plato established the primacy of the rational over the emotional. However, before gaining the ability to make thoughtful and serious decisions, a person relied primarily on emotional reactions: is it dangerous? is it useful? will it help my survival? Umberto Galimberti (b. 1942), one of the most popular contemporary Italian authors, a distinguished professor at the Ca’Foscari University (Venice), and a member of the International Association for Analytical Psychology, contemplates in his book how the era of “technological rationality” affects how modern people experience emotions.

On the one hand, social expectations hinder us from sincerely and deeply experiencing our own emotions, requiring strict rationality.

On the other hand, informational capitalism turns our personality into yet another commodity.

Demonstrative, public experiencing of emotions, which doesn’t make them unique — this is the foundation of the modern attention economy, according to Galimberti.

Our children will have to learn to experience their emotions anew — deeply, authentically, individually.