Where Do Feelings Come From?
The story of Mark Solms, a brain scientist in Cape Town, South Africa, and what he found out about feelings, dreams, and you.
Meet Mark 👋
Mark Solms was born in 1961 in Namibia, a desert country next to South Africa, and grew up in South Africa.
When Mark was a small boy, something happened that changed his life. His older brother, Lee, fell from a roof while playing and badly hurt his brain.
Lee got better in his body. He looked the same. But he wasn't quite the same person inside.
Mark kept wondering: “How can my brother be the same, and not the same? How can a person be inside a brain?”
That one big question turned into his whole job.
💡 Think about it: Mark's best idea grew out of something sad and confusing. Hard things in life can turn into curiosity and help for others.
Mark's journey
1961 · Born in Lüderitz, Namibia.
Childhood · His brother's accident gets him wondering about the brain.
University · Studies psychology and the brain in Johannesburg.
1988–2002 · Moves to London. Works with brain-injury patients in a hospital and trains as a psychoanalyst (a talking therapist who helps people understand their hidden feelings).
1990s · Discovers which part of the brain makes us dream (see page 4!).
2002 · Returns to South Africa to lead brain science at the University of Cape Town.
2021 · Writes The Hidden Spring, about where feelings come from.
2026 · Writes The Only Cure, about how talking therapy helps people heal.
Your Brain: The Thinker and The Feeler 🧠
Most scientists used to think the big wrinkly outside of the brain did everything, including feelings. Mark said: no, feelings start much deeper down.
Tap the parts of the brain to find out what they do.
👆 Tap the pink, orange, or purple part.
Mark's big idea, in one sentence
Your feelings come from a deep, ancient part of your brain. Your thinking brain then works out what to do about them.
Mark points to some children born with very little of the outer brain. They can still laugh, show joy, and get upset. So feelings can't live only in the outer brain.
🔬 Being honest: This is a bold idea. Many scientists agree, but some still think the outer brain matters more for feelings. Good science means people argue and test.
Your 7 Feeling Systems 🎨
Mark built on the work of his friend Jaak Panksepp, who found seven feeling systems that all mammals share: you, dogs, even rats (rats laugh when tickled!).
Tap a card to flip it. Tick the ones you felt this week. Every feeling is normal; each one has a job.
You've ticked 0 of 7.
💡 No feeling is “bad.” Fear keeps you safe. Anger protects what matters. Sadness helps you reconnect. Feelings only cause trouble when they're too loud for too long, or when nobody listens to them.
The Dream Discovery 🌙
Scientists used to think dreams were just random noise made during a type of sleep called REM sleep (Rapid Eye Movement: your eyes dart around under your eyelids).
Mark studied people whose brains had been injured in different places. He found something surprising:
- Some people had damage to the REM part and still dreamed.
- Some people had damage to the SEEKING path (the “wanting and curious” system) and stopped dreaming, even though their REM sleep was fine.
So dreams aren't switched on by REM. They're switched on by the part of you that wants and wonders.
🛠️ Try the Dream Machine
Flip the switches. Can you work out which one makes the dreams?
🔬 Being honest: Another famous dream scientist, Allan Hobson, strongly disagreed with Mark about what dreams mean. Most scientists now accept that dreaming and REM can happen separately. Whether dreams carry hidden wishes is still argued about.
Feelings Are Messages 📬
Think of your phone's battery warning. It's not there to annoy you. It tells you something needs charging.
Mark says feelings work the same way. They tell you how well you're doing at staying OK, and what you need.
👆 Tap a feeling to read its message.
💡 Mark also works as a talking therapist. He thinks people heal best when they understand what their feelings are trying to tell them, not just when the feelings are switched off.
Quick Quiz 🏆
💚 If your feelings feel too big
Everyone has days when feelings are loud. If yours feel too big for too long, tell someone you trust: a parent, carer, teacher, or school counsellor.
In the UK you can talk to Childline for free, about anything: 0800 1111 or childline.org.uk.
For parents, teachers & grown-ups: sources
- [Ref: Solms M. Dreaming and REM sleep are controlled by different brain mechanisms. Behav Brain Sci 2000;23(6):843–850]
- [Ref: Solms M. The Neuropsychology of Dreams. Mahwah NJ: Erlbaum; 1997]
- [Ref: Solms M, Turnbull O. The Brain and the Inner World. London: Karnac; 2002]
- [Ref: Solms M. The conscious id. Neuropsychoanalysis 2013;15(1):5–19]
- [Ref: Solms M. The Hidden Spring: A Journey to the Source of Consciousness. London: Profile; 2021]
- [Ref: Solms M. The Only Cure: Freud and the Neuroscience of Mental Healing. London: Hachette / New York: Pegasus; 2026]
- [Ref: Panksepp J. Affective Neuroscience: The Foundations of Human and Animal Emotions. New York: OUP; 1998]
- [Ref: Selected principles of Pankseppian affective neuroscience. Front Neurosci 2018;12:1025, PMC6344464]
- [Ref: Wikipedia, Mark Solms, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Solms]
- [Ref: Nautilus interview, “Consciousness is just a feeling”, nautil.us]
- [Ref: UCT Department of Psychology, The Only Cure announcement, 17 Mar 2026, humanities.uct.ac.za]