The book I've been trying to read for 5 years is finally getting finished and I plan to read more while trying to stay away from the trashy self-help propaganda. I'll just quote an amazon review because it's basically my take on the thing:

FSHus(at)aol(dot)com from Atlanta GA
The implications of Ledoux's book are enormous. Ledoux, a neuroscience researcher, shows that our emotions are generated by separate independent neuro systems which work unconsciously; believe it or not, we do NOT run because we are afraid, but rather we are afraid because we run. He also shows that the emotional systems have a much greater impact on our rational conscious than the rational conscious has on the emotional systems. Passion rules reason. This has tremendous implications for the current thinking in psycology/ psychiatry (although they will be slow to pick up on it). And it explains why man has so much angst, why we don't learn from history, why man is so brutal. The importance of this book cannot be overstated.