Emory psychologists to build new connections in Science Commons

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Profiles

Drew Westen, Clinical Psychology

Drew Weston In the words of the Los Angeles Times, Drew Westen has become a “hot ticket” in the last couple of months. His book The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation has become this political season's must-read, earning praise such as the following:

"This is the most interesting, informative book on politics I've read in many years...you have to read this book." [Former President Bill Clinton]

"In the thick of another overheated election cycle, it would seem the time is ripe for an exploration of how political enthusiasms play out on the neural paths of the brain. Drew Westen, the psychologist and author of The Political Brain, supplied an important study." [Washington Post Book World]

"No other book has so comprehensively linked psychological science with election-day choices." [Library Journal]

Westen, a professor of psychology and psychiatry at Emory since 2002, specializes in personality disorders, psychotherapy research and political psychology. For 20 years, he has explored the role of emotions in how the brain processes information. The main thesis of The Political Brain is that emotion is more important than logic in determining how people vote.

In his groundbreaking study, Westen used functional neuroimaging (fMRI) to examine committed Democrats and Republicans, who were asked to evaluate negative information about their candidates just prior to the 2004 presidential election. The network of emotion circuits lit up in the brains of the subjects, while areas of the brain normally engaged in reasoning showed no increased activity.

For more information, see the book's website at http://www.thepoliticalbrain.com/videos.php

Video interview:
Drew Westen, speaks with CBS Evening News' Katie Couric on the science behind how people vote.

Homepage: http://www.psychology.emory.edu/clinical/westen/index.html