A world-renowned psychiatrist and neuroscientist takes us on a riveting journey into the origins of human emotion, examining what mental illnesses can reveal about us all. 'Remarkable ... he has reimagined and redefined what literary non-fiction can be ... poetic, mind-stretching, and through it all, deeply human' Daniel Levitin 'A delight from the opening paragraph to the stunning conclusion, this book is an invitation to reverence for the complexity of the human brain and its relationship to the mind: a ticket to a state of wonder at the essence of our selves' Kathryn Mannix, author of With the End in Mind Why do we feel what we feel? Mental illness is one of the greatest causes of human suffering, but the reasons we bear this burden, and the nature of these diseases, have remained mysterious. Now, our understanding has reached a tipping point. In Connections, Professor Karl Deisseroth intertwines gripping case studies from his experience as an emergency psychiatry physician with breakthrough scientific discoveries from astounding new technology to tell a larger story about the origins of human emotion. Addressing some of the most timeless questions about the human condition while illuminating the roots of misunderstood disorders such as depression, psychosis, schizophrenia and sociopathy, Connections transforms the way we understand the brain, and our selves.