Molecules of Emotion: The Science Behind Mind-Body Medicine

Candace B. Pert

May 2010 · Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

“A highly inspiring story of the search for the biochemical links between consciousness, mind, and body . . . Highly recommended!” —Dean Ornish, MD, New York Times–bestselling author

Foreword by Deepak Chopra, MD

Why do we feel the way we feel? How do our thoughts and emotions affect our health? Are our bodies and minds distinct from each other or do they function together as parts of an interconnected system?

In her groundbreaking book Molecules of Emotion, Candace Pert—an extraordinary neuroscientist who played a pivotal role in the discovery of the opiate receptor—provides startling and decisive answers to these and other challenging questions that scientists and philosophers have pondered for centuries.

Pert’s pioneering research on how the chemicals inside our bodies form a dynamic information network, linking mind and body, is not only provocative, it is revolutionary. By establishing the biomolecular basis for our emotions and explaining these scientific developments in a clear and accessible way, Pert empowers us to understand ourselves, our feelings, and the connection between our minds and our bodies—or bodyminds—in ways we could never possibly have imagined before. From explaining the scientific basis of popular wisdom about phenomena such as “gut feelings” to making comprehensible recent breakthroughs in cancer and AIDS research, Pert provides us with an intellectual adventure of the highest order.

Molecules of Emotion is a landmark work, full of insight and wisdom and possessing that rare power to change the way we see the world and ourselves.

“Reading Molecules of Emotion filled me with molecules associated with joy, inspiration, and hope.” —Christiane Northrup, MD, #1 New York Times–bestselling author

Ratings and reviews

Got as far as 150 pages in and requested a refund. The book is as much a biography as it is about its title. Not interested in the minutiae of her career. I was interested in the molecules of emotion.

About the author

Candace B. Pert, Ph.D., (1946—2013) was an internationally recognized neuroscientist and pharmacologist who played a key role in the discovery of the opioid receptor. Dr. Pert published over 250 research articles and was featured as an expert in Bill Moyers’s PBS series Healing and the Mind, in PBS’s Healing Quest. She was a significant contributor to the emergence of Mind-Body Medicine as an area of legitimate scientific research in the 1980’s, earning her the title of “The Mother of Psychoneuroimmunology,” and “The Goddess of Neuroscience” by her many fans.  Translated into over ten languages, her bestselling book The Molecules of Emotion was a groundbreaking provides startling and decisive answers to these and other challenging questions that scientists and philosophers have pondered for centuries.