Customer Reviews

Love and Addiction (Signet)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I had the luck of finding this presently out of print book in a used book and clothing store in the mid-West. Peele's LOVE AND ADDICTION is about the most concise, eye-opening and, in light of how the problems he documents in American society have only been geometrically exacerbated in the twenty-five years since it was published (now inlcuding an addiction to guns), the most disturbing of the self-help books I have ever read. With the exception of Nancy Friday's JEALOUSY, not since Bradshaw's HOMECOMING, published in 1991, has a book with a psychological theme sent such powerful vibrations through me, forcing me to look again at my life. It effectively removes the veil covering the sad connection between diametrically opposed (and mutually ineffective) views on politics, religion, sex and sexual freedoms, romance, family, marriage, relationships, crimes of all kinds and the spectre/epidemic of drug addiction in the U.S.- as well as the international history of it all.

Many have said with wisdom- often quoting Martin Luther King or a Buddhist philosopher- that we are all joined together in one unified life, like threads in the fabric of society, and until we are all free, no one or group of us truly are. LOVE AND ADDICTION proves such poetic wisdom scientifically for the western mind, and its increasingly growing more fragile soul. Dr. Peele begins to show us the paradox of American society that is crippling us: how we are being psychologically crushed under the weight of our own technological innovations and tremendous freedoms, and how that affects ever single one of us, in all of our relationships, with everyone and everything.

You will learn more about your world- including that of present day self-help book writers with the same problems he delineates- than you may ever have wanted to know. Because he says what you think you already know in a way that makes it all but impossible to ignore.

This book needs to be reprinted, and made available to the general public, now. Twenty-five years later, its prophetic visions and common sense approach have yet to be surpassed.

This book goes against the grain on much of what we have learned about addiction (whatever your poison may be). You will soon see why. It offers many real-life case samples, offers insight and solutions. It is written with fierce intelligence. This is not "bathroom reading", like i consider so many self-help books to me. This is a "thinking persons" book, utterly haunting, yet equally helpful. If you have unhealthy, addictive relationships, you MUST read this book.

Once I realised my problem was relationship addiction, I read everything i could get my hands on about this phenomenon. His treatise on the entire nature of addiction was very interesting but it wasn't an easy read - I had to be quite determined to finish the book. The prose is pretty dense and he takes you through the whole nature of alcoholism to create the model for addiction that he then compares to relationship addiction.

The information is great, just not very easy to access.

Stanton Peele & Archie Brodsky
Love and Addiction

(New York: Taplinger, 1975; New American Library, 1976) 284 pages

This is the first book to compare
'falling in love' with becoming addicted.
When love arises from pre-existing needs,
it creates dependent relationships.

If you would like to explore other books challening the romantic traditions,
search the Internet for: "The Best Books Critical of Romantic Love".

James Leonard Park, existential philosopher

This book wasn't exactly what I was expecting, but it's still a good read. For me it spends too much time discussing addiction to drugs instead of comparing how it's similar to addiction to love. Very well written though, and still entertaining.

In one sentence: the reading and information on addiction simply does NOT get any better than THIS book...truly the GOLD STANDARD on the issue/subject.

way over priced and not in laymans terms would not recommend this book was; also charged twice for item and could not get any help from amazon

than I expected the book to be, but the time for delivery was excellent. This is a great book that explains multiple types of addiction.

I read it about 20 years ago and didn't like it. It was depressing. Now I
don't even remember what was in it. It was a real downer.

This book should be called "Sex Crazed Guys Who Get Upset When Their Girlfriends Leave Them". The author stetches the reader's imagination to the limits as he tries to make a correlation between Drug Withdrawal and the Loss of A Loved One. It becomes obvious that the author of this trash has never heard of the concept of TRUE LOVE and the Process of Grief.I give this book 5 stars because every person who is promiscuous now has a "valid" reason to justify their actions by saying they have a "Sex Addiction" so no doubt this book will have a resurgence in sales.