The Thinking Mind Podcast: Psychiatry & Psychotherapy E163 | How Can We Master Our Emotions? (w/ Prof Laith Al Shawaf)
Feb 20, 2026
Laith Al-Shawaf, research psychologist and professor who studies emotions and their evolutionary functions. He explains emotions as adaptive tools, why shame and anxiety exist, and how emotion shapes perception and memory. The conversation covers mismatch with modern life, recalibrating instincts, emotion labeling, and practical steps to investigate and regulate feelings.
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Average Utility, Individual Fallibility
- Emotions are adaptive on average but can misfire for individuals or in novel modern contexts.
- Thus emotions need recalibration and interrogation rather than blind trust or blanket rejection.
Emotions As Modes Of Operation
- Emotions are modes of operation that coordinate physiology, perception, memory and behavior to solve a problem.
- Treating emotions as whole-system states reveals why they reshape attention and action.
Shame Protects Social Status
- Shame functions to avoid social devaluation by motivating concealment, appeasement, withdrawal or repair.
- It evolved to protect status, which explains why it can be triggered even when one is innocent.
