Deeply Human
Dr. James Manning
Ridgeman Mental Health Books (2025)
ISBN: 978-1917369664
Reviewed by Demetria Head for Reader Views (12/2025)
Dr. James Manning’s Deeply Human: The Science and Soul of Emotional Healing is a guide to help people at varying levels understand how emotions end up manifesting in their lives. This is not a self-help guide; it is so much more. This is a case study in narrative form that follows three people throughout their emotional journey. There’s Mark, his wife Eleana, and his son Theo. As the narrative goes, Eleana reaches out to the therapist to help her husband. She felt like she was married to a stranger who had just checked out or withdrawn from her a few years ago. She noticed how their son, Theo, began responding to what was happening between them. Mark then reaches out a few days later and makes his first appointment a week later.
I learned so much about emotions just from following this family’s story and therapy sessions. There were terms I had never even heard of, but they made me want to learn more and perhaps apply them to my own life and how I process emotions and stress. The term is alexithymia, and it means a difficulty in identifying and describing emotions. According to Dr. Manning, many clients have some form or element of this condition. To help readers further understand what can happen, Manning explains that some sufferers of alexithymia may experience tightness or discomfort, but they have difficulty linking the physical side effects to their emotions. Going back to Mark, he realized that he learned early on that emotional intensity was dangerous, when thinking back to his childhood and how his father would come home drunk and violent.
Each chapter has its own diagram to further explain what’s happening in the brain and body. For example, in Chapter 2, there is a diagram of a happy brain and one of a brain in distress. Dr. Manning explains that when humans are happy, communication goes between the logical, intuitive, and emotional parts of the brain, “allowing us to think clearly and coordinate cognitive processes.” On the other hand, when the brain is distressed, the mind races and becomes scattered, and “logic, intuition, and emotional regulation become disconnected.”
I thoroughly enjoyed learning and following this family in Deeply Human. Nothing was perfect, but it showed hope and progress. Mark’s willingness to go through the therapy session was a start, and it also sends the message that men don’t have to not seek help for their mental well-being. It also shows that, as men, it is okay to be vulnerable. Further along, Dr. Manning discusses how emotional detachment doesn’t start in adulthood, but in childhood. He also explains how unprocessed memories can affect both the body and mind. He uses Patricia’s scenario as an example to explain how her suppressed emotions possibly contributed to her headaches. Dr. Manning referred to internal simulators to help Patricia reconnect with emotions she’d suppressed for decades. What this does is use old memories to access emotions, then she can focus on that and ask those emotions questions, such as, “Show me what you are reacting to?”
There is so much to unpack, but it is very interesting to see how Dr. Manning helps clients to break these barriers and go from diagnosis to possibly healing. He introduces somatic practices. Patricia is just one of his clients that he’s guided through this process, but as the book continues following Mark and his progress, he also learned to reconnect sensation and meaning, thus explaining why emotional healing has to go beyond logic and into the body. Manning showed in these scenarios how people have to be willing to remain in their discomfort so that those emotions can come through, no matter how painful. But there are highs and lows, and that is what is expected in relational healing. Not only does Manning take us through the different stages in his clients’ progress, but he keeps up in the loop on their outcomes. We get to see how EQs or emotional intelligence have shifted in each of them, for the better.
Deeply Human balances neuroscience, an up-close and personal narrative style, and soul. It has thematic depth like Bessel van der Kolk’s The Body Keeps the Score or Richard Schwartz’s No Bad Parts; however, Manning’s work is very distinct. We get to sit front and center and witness Mark’s awakening after not being taught how to feel. Many readers who are looking for a new approach to emotional healing will find Deeply Human by Dr. James Manning to be very valuable and refreshing.