The Origin of Emotions, Version 1.0 [Paperback]

Mark Devon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2006

The Origin of Emotions identifies the purpose, trigger and effect of each emotion. A non-printable PDF of the book can be downloaded at www.theoriginofemotions.com

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Mark graduated from Harvard University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 190 pages
• Publisher: BookSurge Publishing (August 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1419627457
• ISBN-13: 978-1419627453
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 8.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,295,929 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #44 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Outdoors & Nature > Nature Writing

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

55 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars There is no basis for many of the claims in this book, September 10, 2006

By 

PsychBook Reviewer (Orlando, FL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Origin of Emotions, Version 1.0 (Paperback)

I looked at the author's website after seeing a grand, full-page advertisment for the book in the New York Times. The website allows you to see what the author writes in his book chapters. He asserts things like "a mother only loves their child for 33 months". Many other assertions are just as preposterous.

Looking a little more carefully into its publication, one sees that it is self-published. Not to say that there aren't good self-published books out there, but when a major premise is that "only men feel jealousy" one can see why a more serious publisher would have steered away.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Who is this guy?, November 27, 2006

By 

East Bay Vinny - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Origin of Emotions, Version 1.0 (Paperback)

To state the obvious, this book has a bold title. A true discussion of the origin of emotions would be fascinating, and would help us to answer age-old questions about creation v evolution, genetic predisposition, and the essence of personality -- what some religions would call the essence of a person's spirit. I would expect any author(s) who wrote such a book to be thoroughly credentialed in some combination of psychology, neurology, anthropology, and/or theology, and i would expect the book itself to be replete with citations, cross-references, footnotes, and a comprehensive bibliography.

This book scores a zero on all of the above.

To begin with, Mark Devon claims to be Harvard educated, but a quick Google search reveals no research papers, dissertations or other credentials. So, just who is this guy?

After you ready the first few pages, you might think that a better question to ask is, "Who does this guy THINK he is?" He quickly drops on the reader such completely unsubstantiated bombshells as "Only men feel jealousy" and "Only women feel infatuation and heartbreak." No citations or resources listed -- the author is simply telling us this.

So much for scientific methodology.

I think that what Devon is trying to do is create a work along the lines of Eric Hoffer's "True Believer," which is basically a series of thoughtful and thought-provoking aphorisms about mass movements in human society. Hoffer's work, however, is better researched, more interesting, less presumptuous, and less abrasive.

It is interesting that Devon has subtitled this book, "Version 1.0." Perhaps subsequent upgrades will fix some of the bugs and better explain "the origin of emotions." I won't be waiting for them.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars There is academic work on this topic -- this is not it, December 1, 2006

By 

Sonya Trejo "Evo Psycho" (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Origin of Emotions, Version 1.0 (Paperback)

Devon is right -- emotions are human adaptations. But this is not a new discovery he came up with. Cosmides and Tooby founded an entire new field called evolutionary psychology, based on the idea that psychological adaptations are formed the way physical adaptations are. They've written many scholarly articles, and many books are available on the topic. Many popular books on this subject contain silly errors or a bit of the author's ego, but this one it out there. Way out there. Here's the thing -- this is a scientific field, but Devon is utterly unpracticed in it. His conclusions are logically based on his premises, but his premises are utterly unfounded. Just because his overarching premise is true -- emotions are adaptations -- doesn't mean all his little pet ideas have any basis in reality at all. What is the proof, for example, that human beings start over with a new partner for each child? In fact, there is quite a bit of evidence to the contrary. Most men do not want to couple with a woman with children from another man -- the idea that at 33 months a child no longer needs resources from two parents is simply laughable. To suggest they need no parents at all and the mother can simply go on with a new man and produce a new child is in the realm of the absurd.