Customer Reviews

The Psychology of Love

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

 

 

This book is a compilation of 16 academic papers discussing such things as love styles (types), compatibility, relationship maintenance and, well, all aspects of love! Varying ideas on intimacy, passion, and commitment and how they relate to the love relationship. These are academic papers, so expect them to be written to a college level audience (one of the toughest reads was also one of the best papers, in my opinion). Authors were mostly professors from top universities (e.g., Harvard, Yale, Brandeis, etc.), along with one psychotherapist. All papers are fully referenced. Also included, of course, is a full index for quick referencing. This was an exceptional look at love from a quantative (as well as qualitative) standpoint. As hard as it is to quantify something as touchy-feely as love, this book does quite the job. Anyone who desires an understanding of the dynamics of love would enjoy this book. I found it to be a pretty quick read and both interesting and informative.

Given that psychology itself would seem incomplete if serious psychologists did not prove that they at least understood this most basic engine of human emotions, interactions and activity, these 16 authors seem to have taken up this state of incompleteness as a professional challenge for themselves.

After having perused more than a dozen self-help and pop psychology books on the topic myself, this book is one of the first (and still few) serious studies of the topic of love, per se. Almost 25 years old now, we find here lots of new insights and more than just a few surprises. For instance, it attempts to grapple with the definition of love: Is it an attitude, an emotion, a set of behaviors? Is it an individual orientation or a dyadic bond? How does it differ from infatuation or just pure sexual attraction, or mere lush? How is it best categorized as a psychological phenomenon? What are its connection to evolution and biology? What is its anatomy? How do we maintain it? And perhaps most important of all, how do we properly engage in it passionately? In short, much to my surprise, this edited volume attempts to answer these and other questions; and in the process of doing so, exposes a whole new world and study of the psychology of, and theories about love, theories of which, as it turns out, are an altogether quite robust field of psychological enquiry in itself.

Before this, the book by Ayn Rand's boyfriend, Nathaniel Braden called "The Psychology of Romantic Love," and Eric Fromm's seminal, "The Art of Loving," had been my favorite guides to the topic. As none of the contributors cited either of these two authors (although Fromm's was mentioned, in passing, in the introduction), one must assume that the theories and topics covered in those two books do not exactly overlap with the deeper psychological treatment provided here. The appeal here is much more serious and focussed much more on the theoretical "whys" of love: Their origins, the practices of love across cultures and across time; its taboos as well as what are considered its abnormal practices The biography is academic as opposed to being just pop psychology.

In short, they have provided us with the missing link in psychology: the psychology of love. And in this task, it must be said that they have done more than just an admirable job. Four Stars

This book is very informative on the exact subject matter, which is the psychology of love. They look at love from many different perspectives and look at all aspect's of love. Not only is this book informative but also interesting. The only thing that may come off as discouraging about this book is the vocabulary. Other wise, This book comes highly recommended by myself.

An elucidating summing-up of different current subjects in the psychology of love.