Part One: Chapter 2, Anatomy of an Emotional Hijacking Summary and Analysis

Under certain conditions, the limbic brain can overwhelm or hijack the body to respond to a perceived threat while bypassing the neocortex. Also called a neural hijacking, the emotions take charge. In such moments, people are described as 'blowing up' or 'losing it' with the reaction seeming impulsive and out of proportion to the stimulus. The amygdala in the limbic system stores emotional memory assigning meaning to feelings. To lose the amygdala is to lose passion and connections to the world.

Neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux, working at the Center for Neural Science at New York University, discovered that the amygdala acts like a sentinel with the power to seize control and drive the body to act before the rational part of the brain, the neocortex, can analyze the...