The heart is the most symbolic organ of the human body. Across
cultures it is seen as the site of emotions, as well as the origin
of life. We feel emotions in the heart, from the heart-stopping
sensation of romantic love to the crushing sensation of despair.
And yet since the nineteenth century the heart has been redefined
in medical terms as a pump, an organ responsible for the
circulation of the blood. Emotions have been removed from the heart
as an active site of influence and towards the brain. It is the
brain that is the organ most commonly associated with emotion in
the modern West.
So why, then, do the emotional meanings of the heart linger? Why
do many transplantation patients believe that the heart, for
instance, can transmit memories and emotions and why do we still
refer to emotions as "heartfelt?"
We cannot answer these questions without reference to the history
of the heart as both physical organ and emotional symbol. Matters
of the Heart traces the ways emotions have been understood between
the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries as both physical entities
and spiritual experiences. With reference to historical
interpretations of such key concepts as gender, emotion,
subjectivity and the self, it also addresses the shifting
relationship from heart to brain as competing centers of emotion in
the West.
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