Law and Psychology: The Emotions, Harvard University

Love, jealousy, guilt, anger, fear, greed, compassion, hope, and joy play important roles in the lives of lawyers and those with whom they interact. The most effective lawyers are not just good thinkers, they are also empathic students of human emotions. This seminar will offer students a chance to explore what is missing from the traditional law school rational actor model of human nature through discussion of readings, primarily from psychology (but with contributions from economics, biology, philosophy, and literature), about the nature and operation of the emotions, the use of emotion in persuasion and negotiation, emotions and the good life, and the role of emotions in moral and legal decision making. This information has been collected for the Post-Discipline Online Syllabus Database. The database explores the use of literature by schools of professional education in North America. It forms part of a larger project titled Post-Discipline: Literature, Professionalism, and the Crisis of the Humanities, led by Dr Merve Emre with the assistance of Dr Hayley G. Toth. You can find more information about the project at https://postdiscipline.english.ox.ac.uk/. Data was collected and accurate in 2021/22.