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Laura Otis, "Banned Emotions: How Metaphors Can Shape What People Feel" (Oxford UP, 2019)

May 27, 2025
Laura Otis, a neuroscientist-turned-literary scholar, explores how metaphors shape our emotional experiences in her work, 'Banned Emotions'. She discusses the impact of language on feelings like self-pity and anger, using classic literature and pop culture examples. Otis highlights how societal norms affect which emotions can be expressed, drawing parallels between literary characters and real-life struggles with rejection and injustice. Ultimately, she challenges listeners to reconsider their understanding of emotional regulation and its cultural implications.
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ANECDOTE

Personal Breakup Sparked Research

  • Laura Otis wrote this book after a painful breakup, noticing how people told her how to feel.
  • This personal experience drove her to explore the social and political rules governing emotions.
INSIGHT

Emotions Are Constructed Concepts

  • Emotions are influenced strongly by language, culture, and learned categories.
  • Lisa Feldman Barrett's constructed emotion theory sees emotions as evolving concepts rather than fixed biological states.
INSIGHT

Bodily Metaphors Shape Emotion Views

  • Negative emotions like self-pity are often described with unfavorable bodily metaphors.
  • These metaphors reflect cultural disdain by linking such emotions to rigidity, filth, or inactivity.
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