This is a great book for understanding what emotions are about. I recommend it highly. I also suggest you read Optimal Thinking: How to bbe your best self to learn what causes each emotion and how to make them work best for you. The book gives you incredibly simple roadmaps to understand and resolve all disturbing emotions. Read each of these books!

Charles Darwin wrote a book called "Expression of Emotions in Man and Animal." It was an overnight best seller when it came out a century and a half ago. But by the 1950s, Darwin's view -- that emotions have an important evolutionary base -- was in eclipse. Psychologists and anthropologists (like Margaret Mead) thought facial expressions of emotion were a product of culture.
Paul Ekman rescued Darwin's contribution with his own research in primitive areas of the world. Like Darwin and his voyage of the Beagle, Ekman took a hard look at actual data. And he's been looking ever since.
Today, Ekman is a world class expert on face and emotion. Probably THE world class expert. For instance, when the Dalai Lama wanted to know about modern research on emotion, Ekman was one of a handful of experts flown to India to give the Dalai Lama a five-day, one-on-one seminar. (See Dan Goleman's book "Destructive Emotions.")
Unlike the Dalai Lama, Ekman is not a Buddhist. But if he were it would be tempting to believe he is this generation's reincarnation of Charles Darwin. Again and again, reviewers comment "Not since Darwin..."
Ekman's current book may not turn out to be the immediate best selling blockbuster that Darwin's book was. But it certainly deserves a wide audience. It's an excellent summary of what is known about the face and feeling today. It lets the reader look over the shoulder of an active researcher. You see work in progress -- and get a peak into the future.
In short, anyone interested in understanding their own feelings -- and the feelings of others -- will find this book a readable, useful and fascinating journey. The emotions are a world be meet face-to-face every day -- yet for most of us this realm remains a mystery. This book provides a valuable roadmap.

This is the second book that I throw my serious students after I make them read the Voyage. While the subject is serious, there is more than a hint of play throughout, and one can just imagine Darwin observing his own children for clues to discuss as each chapter unfolds. Although this book is of course not nearly as important as the Origin or even Descent, it is essentially part of the Long Argument, and is a great way of bringing behavioural topics to the fore in any discussion of evolution. A pity it is that many modern popularizers of "evolutionary psychology" seem to have missed parts of the form and substance that Darwin expresses here.

Ever since I received Paul EkmanÕs new edition of DarwinÕs classic work, the book has been my constant companion. I carry it with me from room to room, picking it up to read whenever I have a few minutes.

You can open to just about any page and discover yet another gem. Whether you find a bit to read by chance, or whether you like to be guided by the fascinating table of contents and index, or whether you prefer to begin at the beginning, Darwin is always interesting and accessible. In view of our troubled world, I find it helpful to remember that empathy is an essential part of human and animal nature. It seems the study of emotion must lead us toward a deeper understanding of these universal, powerful forces that energize and transform our lives.

ÒExpressionÓ is really an old friend. As a young dance therapist in the 1960s, I was impressed first by DarwinÕs ability to describe the dynamic process of expressive movement. Obviously it is the emotions that motivate and shape the way we move. I learned then that his observations were gathered over a period of 30 years. His subjects included not only all kinds of animals, but also human infants, children and adults from every walk of life and from many different cultures. He approached the study of emotional expression from the perspective of art, literature and inner experience, as well as from muscles and the nervous system. Although it was first published over 125 years ago (1872) DarwinÕs work continues to inspire and inform contemporary research in many fields.

The new edition is simply outstanding. Paul EkmanÕs editing is clearly a Òlabor of love,Ó and at the same time a thorough, original scholarly contribution. I particularly like the way he places DarwinÕs work in a cultural and social/political context. EkmanÕs commentary offers rich resources as he quietly updates, re-frames or differs, yet more than anything, confirms and extends DarwinÕs observations. It is as if Ekman and Darwin were engaged in a kind of dialogue, each learning from the other. Thereader is a privileged witness.

Joan Chodorow

The title of this book suggests a practical approach: "Clues to deceit in the marketplace, politics and marriage". However the actual content is very different. Thorough the whole book the author mainly explains the results of some experiments he has done at the university. The results are interesting but non practical at all. Actually, it seems to me that the main conclusion of the book is that there are no reliable methods or tests to find out if someone is lying. The references to marriage, politics and the marketplace are just anecdotical and non substantial to the book.

I am not saying that the book is not interesting. What I'm saying is that the title is deceiving and seems to be only a marketing strategy to make it attractive to more people. That is not exactly honest, specially for a book dealing with lies and deceit.

The book is fascinating, to say the least. I think people need to take a "realistic approach" to applying the knowledge acquired by reading the book. My one big fault with the book is that whoever actually "wrote" the book is terrible with regard to constructing sentences and expressing ideas! I had to read some things twice in order to make sure I was receiving the information as intended. Dr. Ekman needs to invest in a professional writer who can more clearly express his thoughts, intents and ideas. Hard reading and unneccesarily so!

A great book with everything one could possibly want to know about telling and catching lies successfully.

While the research contained in this book offer some interesting information much of the work looks very dated. While it was published in 1995 that is a very long time when it comes to neuroscience. Around that time there began an explosion of brain imaging studies using newly developed brain imaging technologies. This has allowed brain and behavior researchers to understand at a much deeper level the processes involved in for example emotion.

I suggest looking at the very latest in publications. For example Joseph LeDoux (who has entries here that are head and shoulders above the other contributers)

I was pleased to recent find Paul Ekman's book _Why Kids Lie_ given my interest in the virtue of honesty. The book proved to be an easy read, as the writing style was clear, engaging, and even friendly. But like many psychology books written in such a breezy tone, Eckman's book fell a bit short in the substance department.

However, the book was certainly not entirely lacking. Eckman summarizes some psychological studies that I have not seen elsewhere, such as those that investigating the factors influencing children's choices to cheat and lie. Of particular use to parents is his discussion of the evolution of children's attitudes towards lying throughout childhood. Most children start off with the view that lying is always wrong, then slowly allow more exceptions until dishonesty is pretty much okay whenever as a teenager. And he does offer practical advice to parents of lying children.

But two failings did stand out:

First, Eckman's understanding of the justification for honesty as a virtue is entirely limited to the argument that dishonesty destroys trust in relationships. No other reasons for honesty are given explicit attention. However, since so many lies go undetected, this argument from trust is one of the weakest arguments for honesty available. Additionally, trust works in strange and muted ways in family relationships, because the option of scaling back or terminating a relationship is simply not available as in adult relationships. Members of a family are, for the most part, stuck with each other for better or worse for many, many years. If a child betrays a parent's trust, that parent cannot trade in their child for a new and better one. But the (limited) power of the appeal to trust comes from exactly this possibility: that our relationships might be severely hampered or even destroyed by the discovery of a lie. As a result, where children are concerned, the argument from trust really boils down to the fact that kids avoid lying for fear of being caught and punished. This sad fact certainly highlights the need for a more complete view of why honesty is a virtue.

Second, Eckman hops, skips, and jumps through important moral arguments concerning the scope of honesty as a virtue. He asserts (without much argument) that certain types of lies are acceptable, such as those told to be polite or to protect oneself from danger. Unfortunately, Eckman's moral distinctions are fuzzy and unclear, and thus prone to expansion. We see such expansion in his teenage son Tom's views on morally acceptable lies, as laid out rather well in Chapter Four by Tom himself. Tom argues that any lie "told for good purpose" is acceptable, including lies to "avoid getting in trouble" (109). We also see the failure of altruism to establish honesty as a virtue in his question: "As long as [a lie] doesn't hurt anybody, what is so wrong about it?" (109). Unlike Eckman, parents do need to demarcate clear moral lines with clear reasons if they wish their kids to adhere to moral principles.

For any parent trying to cope with a deceitful child, _Why Kids Lie_ may prove useful. But don't get your hopes up.