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Joseph E LeDoux Ph.D.

About

Joseph LeDoux, Ph.D., is a professor of neuroscience and psychology at New York University. He directs the Emotional Brain Institute at NYU. He has won a number of top awards and prizes in the fields of psychology, cognitive science, and philosophy, including membership in the National Academy of Sciences. His books include The Emotional Brain (Simon and Schuster, 1996), Synaptic Self (Viking, 2002), Anxious: Using the Brain to Understand and Treat Fear and Anxiety (Viking, 2015), The Deep History of Ourselves: The Four-Billion-Year Story of How We Got Conscious Brains (Viking, 2019), and The Four Realms of Existence: A New Theory of Being Human (Harvard University Press (2023).

LeDoux is also the lead singer and songwriter for The Amygdaloids, a rock band known for their ‘heavy mental” sound—songs about mind and brain and mental disorders.

Books by Joseph E LeDoux Ph.D.
Recent Posts
Is Consciousness Mysterious?
Some say consciousness is mysterious, a hard problem that science cannot solve. Until we accept that consciousness is a brain function, what it is will continue to mystify.
Heating, Eating, and Thinking
Parallel evolution of complex capacities for planning, decision-making, and risk-assessment may have evolved in mammals and select birds in conjunction with warm-bloodedness.
Rethinking Dual Process Models of Thought
I propose revising the two-system view of thought, redistributing the processes across three systems related to different evolutionary-derived realms of existence in the brain.
Our Four Realms of Existence: The Biological Realm

The biological realm of existence is the most fundamental. It exists in all living things. In humans, my main focus, it enables neurobiological, cognitive, and conscious realms.

The biological realm of existence is the most fundamental. It exists in all living things. In humans, my main focus, it enables neurobiological, cognitive, and conscious realms.

Our Four Realms of Existence

A human being can be characterized as a composite of four fundamental, parallel, entwined realms of existence: biological, neurobiological, cognitive, and conscious.

A human being can be characterized as a composite of four fundamental, parallel, entwined realms of existence: biological, neurobiological, cognitive, and conscious.

Heavy Mental

Personal Perspective: How a boy who loved music became a neuroscientist. His research inspired his music, resulting in a documentary about his life, as well as a musical.

Personal Perspective: How a boy who loved music became a neuroscientist. His research inspired his music, resulting in a documentary about his life, as well as a musical.

Human Fear and Anxiety

Rats and mice are not little people; their brains differ in important ways from ours. We can learn a lot, but not everything, about human fear and anxiety from them.

Rats and mice are not little people; their brains differ in important ways from ours. We can learn a lot, but not everything, about human fear and anxiety from them.

Implications for Therapy of Six Simple Brain Principles

Subjective experience is not just another symptom. People want to feel better, not just behave differently, as a result of therapy.

Subjective experience is not just another symptom. People want to feel better, not just behave differently, as a result of therapy.

An Emotion Is...

Emotions are personal. They are about something that is happening to YOU.

Emotions are personal. They are about something that is happening to YOU.