Emotional inteligence
106/661Elliot's tumor, growing just behind his forehead, was thesize of a small orange; surgery removed it completely.Although the surgery was declared a success, afterwardpeople who knew him well said that Elliot was no longerElliot—he had undergone a drastic personality change.Once a successful corporate lawyer, Elliot could nolonger hold a job. His wife left him. Squandering hissavings in fruitless investments, he was reduced to livingin a spare bedroom at his brother's home.There was a puzzling pattern to Elliot's problem. Intellectuallyhe was as bright as ever, but he used his timeterribly, getting lost in minor details; he seemed to havelost all sense of priority. Reprimands made no difference;he was fired from a succession of legal jobs.Though extensive intellectual tests found nothing wrongwith Elliot's mental faculties, he went to see a neurologistanyway, hoping that discovery of a neurologicalproblem might get him the disability benefits to whichhe felt he was entitled. Otherwise the conclusion seemedto be that he was just a malingerer.Antonio Damasio, the neurologist Elliot consulted,was struck by one element missing from Elliot's mentalrepertoire: though nothing was wrong with his logic,memory, attention, or any other cognitive ability, Elliotwas virtually oblivious to his feelings about what hadhappened to him. 13 Most strikingly, Elliot could narrate
107/661the tragic events of his life with complete dispassion, asthough he were an onlooker to the losses and failures ofhis past—without a note of regret or sadness, frustrationor anger at life's unfairness. His own tragedy broughthim no pain; Damasio felt more upset by Elliot's storythan did Elliot himself.The source of this emotional unawareness, Damasioconcluded, was the removal, along with the brain tumor,of part of Elliot's prefrontal lobes. In effect, the surgeryhad severed ties between the lower centers of the emotionalbrain, especially the amygdala and related circuits,and the thinking abilities of the neocortex. Elliot'sthinking had become computerlike, able to make everystep in the calculus of a decision, but unable to assignvalues to differing possibilities. Every option was neutral.And that overly dispassionate reasoning, suspectedDamasio, was the core of Elliot's problem: too littleawareness of his own feelings about things made Elliot'sreasoning faulty.The handicap showed up even in mundane decisions.When Damasio tried to choose a time and date for thenext appointment with Elliot, the result was a muddle ofindecisiveness: Elliot could find arguments for andagainst every date and time that Damasio proposed, butcould not choose among them. At the rational level,there were perfectly good reasons for objecting to or
- Page 56 and 57: 56/661falling—illustrates the pow
- Page 58 and 59: sensory information that have not b
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- Page 66 and 67: 66/661the amygdala, whatever the ne
- Page 68 and 69: PART TWOTHE NATURE OFEMOTIONALINTEL
- Page 70 and 71: 70/661After transferring to a priva
- Page 72 and 73: course it accounts for. But what da
- Page 74 and 75: 74/661level of young people of comp
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- Page 80 and 81: 80/661varieties of intelligence. In
- Page 82 and 83: 82/661discern and respond appropria
- Page 84 and 85: 84/661Mr. Spock, the archetype of d
- Page 86 and 87: you get that are essential for inte
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- Page 90 and 91: the subtle social signals that indi
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- Page 94 and 95: 4Know ThyselfA belligerent samurai,
- Page 96 and 97: 96/661faculty of mind in writing of
- Page 98 and 99: 98/661• Self-aware. Aware of thei
- Page 100 and 101: 100/661Temple University, to assess
- Page 102 and 103: 102/661Gary was emotionally flat, c
- Page 104 and 105: 104/661silent. When her therapist t
- Page 108 and 109: 108/661accepting virtually every po
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- Page 112 and 113: 112/661just out of his awareness an
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- Page 118 and 119: worked themselves into a rage in or
- Page 120 and 121: explain why some views about it are
- Page 122 and 123: are so much more prone to anger if
- Page 124 and 125: subsided, and a third on top of tho
- Page 126 and 127: can no longer think straight. When
- Page 128 and 129: it stops that angry train of though
- Page 130 and 131: Tice found that ventilating anger i
- Page 132 and 133: 132/661the anxiety disorders: phobi
- Page 134 and 135: 134/661method. In short, the worrie
- Page 136 and 137: 136/661thoughts, they do not seem t
- Page 138 and 139: 138/661learn relaxation methods tha
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- Page 142 and 143: 142/661people ruminate. Worrying ab
- Page 144 and 145: and think of more positive alternat
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- Page 150 and 151: pain of their own. Throwing oneself
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106/661
Elliot's tumor, growing just behind his forehead, was the
size of a small orange; surgery removed it completely.
Although the surgery was declared a success, afterward
people who knew him well said that Elliot was no longer
Elliot—he had undergone a drastic personality change.
Once a successful corporate lawyer, Elliot could no
longer hold a job. His wife left him. Squandering his
savings in fruitless investments, he was reduced to living
in a spare bedroom at his brother's home.
There was a puzzling pattern to Elliot's problem. Intellectually
he was as bright as ever, but he used his time
terribly, getting lost in minor details; he seemed to have
lost all sense of priority. Reprimands made no difference;
he was fired from a succession of legal jobs.
Though extensive intellectual tests found nothing wrong
with Elliot's mental faculties, he went to see a neurologist
anyway, hoping that discovery of a neurological
problem might get him the disability benefits to which
he felt he was entitled. Otherwise the conclusion seemed
to be that he was just a malingerer.
Antonio Damasio, the neurologist Elliot consulted,
was struck by one element missing from Elliot's mental
repertoire: though nothing was wrong with his logic,
memory, attention, or any other cognitive ability, Elliot
was virtually oblivious to his feelings about what had
happened to him. 13 Most strikingly, Elliot could narrate
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