Cupid's Arrow: The Course of Love through Time [Paperback]

Robert J. Sternberg PhD (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0521478936 | ISBN-13: 978-0521478939 | Publication Date: January 13, 2000

Love is strange. It can be the source of both profound inspiration and deep misery. Its complexities and dimensions have possessed us since the beginning of time, and no emotion is as linked to human history as love. It defines who we are, what we do, and how we live and yet remains an enigmatic presence in our lives. In Cupid's Arrow, renowned psychologist Robert J. Sternberg presents a unique psychological approach to our understanding of this powerful emotion. He explores human relationships, revealing how and why people fall in and out of love. The book draws on fields ranging from history to cognitive science to folklore, offering a fascinating and comprehensive account of love in its many forms. Sternberg applies his "triangular theory," examining the many varieties of love through combinations of intimacy, passion, and commitment. Using this theory as a focal point, Cupid's Arrow delivers both a fresh perspective on the experience of love during the lifetime of the individual, and a rich history of the conceptions of love throughout the ages. This book will prove to be enlightening and engaging reading for anyone who has ever dared to try to understand love. Robert J. Sternberg is IBM Professor of Psychology and Education at Yale University. He has received numerous awards, including the Sylvia Scribner Award of the American Educational Research Association in 1996. He has authored hundreds of articles and dozens of books, including Thinking Styles (Cambridge, 1997) and Successful Intelligence (Simon and Schuster, 1996).

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Love intoxicates, complicates, sustains, blinds: you name it, love does it. An eminent professor of psychology and education at Yale, Sternberg sifts through love's many vicissitudes in search of a few general tendencies. He elaborates upon three components of love (intimacy, passion and commitment) that combine in different ways to configure how we fall in and out of love. Opening with a review of Sternberg's social psychological research, the book in general reads as self-help with a strong scientific twist. Clinical vignettes illustrate how love's three components are present in varying amounts in most heterosexual relationships. For example, when lovers report strong feelings of intimacy and passion but lack a sense of commitment, they have "romantic love." Romantic love figures at an early point in a couple's courtship but wanes as passion yields to commitment, and is influenced by cultural and developmental constraints: some cultures celebrate romantic love; others deride it. Sternberg's statistically derived theory turns love into a set of love phenomena: our need for interpersonal attachment; cognitive tasks adults employ to appraise their love life; trends regarding attraction, relationship satisfaction and how relationships change. So, on viewing love's components in perspective, even such distinct phenomena as the frisson of romance and the anguish of a "loveless marriage" become predictable?not so mysterious or unforeseeable after all. An energetic chapter on "love through literature" further renders love's heartache oddly routine. Readers who translate psychological factoids into tools for introspection will likely find Cupid's Arrow interesting and helpful. Wrestlers and poets may prefer to struggle: "Stella!"
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

"An eminent professor of psychology and education at Yale, Sternberg sifts through love's vicissitudes in search of a few general tendencies...Readers who translate psychological factoids into tools for introspection will likely find Cupid's Arrow interesting and helpful." Publishers Weekly

"IBM Professor of Psychology and Education at Yale, presents diverse views of love in one concise volume without sacrificing scholarship or humanness. ...this is highly recommended for all libraries." Library Journal

"Cupid's Arrow is an informative and entertaining introduction to the psychology of love, written by one of the most distinguished experts in the field. The book is solidly based in research facts and findings yet its lively, entertaining style and vivid stories get the message across in clear, easy terms." Roy F. Baumeister, author of Evil: Inside Human Violence and Cruelty

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 220 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (January 13, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521478936
• ISBN-13: 978-0521478939
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,079,100 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An easy-to-read introduction to the psychology of love, June 9, 1999

By 

Peter F. Delaney - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cupid's Arrow: The Course of Love through Time (Hardcover)

A lot of people don't know that, in addition to his extensive work on intelligence, Bob Sternberg of Yale University does research on love. He's now written several books on love, but Cupid's Arrow is my favorite. It's easy to read, it's entertaining, and covers almost all the important data on love and attraction that has come out in the past 30 years. He starts the book with his own "triangular theory of love" framework, which serves as a nice organizer for the material. In addition to being a terrific introduction to the REAL psychology of love (as presented by real psychological scientists rather than bored therapists with PhD after their name), the book gives a detailed account of breakups of long-term relationships and a review of love in literature and culture. The chapters are diverse and fascinating. If you have any interest in what research can tell you about love and attraction, or in gaining insight into your own relationship or breakup, give this short book a try. You won't regret it

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great, January 15, 2005

By 

T S "TSS" (NJ, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cupid's Arrow: The Course of Love through Time (Paperback)

This book provides a foundation to understand relationships.
The inclusion of many psychological theories as well as literature provide great thought provocation.
I think you would definately be able to take something away from this book. If nothing else (even if you don't subscribe to any of the theories), it definately delivers a way of discussing relationships.
I can;t see any way thay someone could not apply some of the theory to either past present or future.
I ended up highlighting many meaningful paragraphs that I can use/refer to.
I Love the book and recommend it!