Editorial Review:Product Description:Drawing on new scientific discoveries and seventy years of collective clinical experience, three psychiatrists unravel life's most elemental mystery: the nature of love.
A primordial area of the brain, far older than reason or thinking, creates both the capacity and the need for emotional intimacy that all humans share.
A General Theory of Love describes the workings of this ancient, pivotal urge and reveals that our nervous systems are not self-contained. Instead, our brains link with those of the people close to us, in a silent rhythm that makes up the very life force of the body. These wordless and powerful ties determine our moods, stabilize and maintain our health and well-being, and change the structure of our brains. In consequence, who we are and who we become depend, in great part, on whom we love.
A General Theory of Love applies these and other extraordinary insights to some of the most crucial issues we face in our lives. Its authors explain how relationships function and where love goes wrong, how parents shape a child's developing self, how psychotherapy really works, what curbs and what fosters violent aggression in our children, and how modern society regularly courts disaster by flouting emotional laws it does not yet recognize.
A work of rare originality, passion, and eloquence,
A General Theory of Love will forever change the way you think about human intimacy.
Amazon.com Review:Poor, poor science--it gets blamed for everything. While it might be true that some of our alienation and unhappiness stem from a too-rational misunderstanding of emotion, it's also true that science is its own remedy.
A General Theory of Love, by San Francisco psychiatrists Thomas Lewis, Fari Amini, and Richard Lannon, is a powerfully humanistic look at the natural history of our deepest feelings, and why a simple hug is often more important than a portfolio full of stock options. Their grasp of neural science is topnotch, but the book is more about humans as social animals and how we relate to others--for once, the brain plays second fiddle to the heart.
Though some of their social analysis is less than fully thought out--surely e-mail isn't a truly unique form of communication, as they suggest--the work as a whole is strong and merits attention. Science, it turns out, does have much to say about our messy feelings and relationships. While much of it could be filed under 'common sense,' it's nice to know that common sense is replicable. Hard-science types will probably be exasperated with the constant shifts between data and appeals to emotional truths, but the rest of us will see in
A General Theory of Love a new synthesis of research and poetry.
--Rob Lightner
Related Items:
see more
Related Items:
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
-
He, him, his... it's all about him!
Even though this book has to offer great insight, I was extremely disappointed of how sexist it appeared to be. They should have thought about their female readers when they wrote this book. Disappointing.
Rating: 
-
An ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL BOOK!! Runs the gamut from self-evident to groundbreakingly informative and innovative. And for
another extraordinary read, I recommend That's How the Light Gets In: Memoir of a Psychiatrist by Susan Rako, M.D. The title comes from a song by Leonard Cohen: "There is a crack, a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in." Rako's book is remarkably candid, fascinating, insightful, and wonderfully well-written. It's a great read. The writing just flows.
Rating: 
-
Strong start
The book starts out strong with biological explanations for why we become sad or depressed when separated from those we love. The authors provide examples of this despair occuring in most mammals and explain in great detail the areas of our brain that coincide to create attachments. But then the book takes a different turn and focuses on how to grow children who are emotionally strong and healthy. I was still looking for insight into how to foster emotional health in adults. Still a worthwhile read with fascinating examples and facts.
Rating: -
Excellent interpretation of the science of love
What I hate most about reading about an author's love philosophy is that usually it's full of mushy gushy stories about destiny and true love. This book is completely different. It may seem a bit dry in comparison, but what it lacks in storytelling it makes up for in scientific scrutiny of the human mind and our brain's capacity for love. I read this book several years ago, and what still stands out in my mind was the contrast between the brain of a chicken and the brain of a dog (or maybe it was a cat). A chicken's brain doesn't have the physical capacity for love and you can see that in their eyes. But when you look into the eyes of your pup isn't that love looking back at you?
Rating: -
What Really Happens When Love Appears
Just what the doctor ordered. Written with with a poet's flourish this well-researched book is an easy read of a complex subject. Definitely a new way of looking at the most talked about yet least understood subject - Love!
