Description
Book SynopsisRomantic love presents some of life''s most challenging questions. Can we choose who to love? Is romantic love rational? Can we love more than one person at a time? And can we make ourselves fall out of love? In On Romantic Love, Berit Brogaard attempts to get to the bottom of love''s many contradictions. This short book, informed by both historical and cutting edge philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience, combines a new theory of romantic love with entertaining anecdotes from real life and accessible explanations of the neuroscience underlying our wildest passions.Against the grain, Brogaard argues that love is an emotion; that it can be, at turns, both rational and irrational; and that it can be manifested in degrees. We can love one person more than another and we can love a person a little or a lot or not at all. And love isn''t even always something we consciously feel. However, love -- like other emotions, both conscious and not -- is subject to rational control, and falling in
Trade Review[C]ompared to other introductory books analysing love, this book is incredibly well balanced. [...] Firstly, the interdisciplinarity of bringing up the true nature of love from the perspectives of science, philosophy, and sociology. Brogaard does not just simply show us the research results of various different academic fields, but also turns those into stories, and constructs her own opinions based on them. * Ōhata Hiroshi, Translated from Japanese by Hannah Kentridge *
Brogaard's book is written to be accessible to general readers without sacrificing philosophical content. It offers more than enough interesting current theoretical work to merit serious attention by professional readers. Whimsical line drawings by illustrator Gareth Southwell add to the book's appeal. Essential. * Choice *
...Berit Brogaard's On Romantic Love is an achievement... Brogaard illustrates her arguments with acute philosophical intelligence, stylistic verve, and concrete human examples... She allows readers to engage in a very personal way with profound, contentious philosophical positions. She also navigates easily through the tempestuous technical waters of contemporary neurological research on love, which is where we might expect a flood of future insights. * The Chronicle of Higher Education *
...it is a helpful manual to be used in case of being harmed in love..." * Metapsychology Online Reviews *
[A] good read, pacy and informative with a nice balance of narratives, debate overviews and claim staking. * The Philosophers' Magazine *
Table of ContentsPreface Chapter 1: Letter from a Friend Chapter 2: The Chemistry of Love Your Brain on Crack Beliefs and Brain Chemistry Taking the Drug Away Addicted to Grief Emotional Pain Stress, Pimples and Gray Hair Love and Hate Chapter 3: The Philosophy of Love Love as an Emotion Basic and Complex Emotions The James-Lange Theory The Conjunctive Theory of Emotions The Connection Problem The Problem of Emotional Responses to Fiction The Perceived-Response Theory Chapter 4: Irrational Love Does the Idea of Irrational Love Make Sense? You Call It Madness, I Call It Love Irrational Compassionate Love Love as a Moral Emotion Love as a History Love and Personal Identity Is Love Unconditional? Love and Personal Identity Love and Sex Chapter 5: Relationships and Insecure Attachment Avoidant Attachment Style Secure Versus Insecure Attachment Avoidant Attachment Anxious Attachment Childish Relationships Jealousy and Anxious Attachment Attachment and the Relationship Theory Can Attachment Styles Change? Familiar Love Attachment Love Can Animals Love? The Other Dimension of Sex Chapter 6: Our Unconscious Affections Opponents of Unconscious Affection Unconscious Affect Unconscious Love In Your Dreams Is Love a Disposition Chapter 7: He Is Just Not That into You (And Other In-Between Cases) Prototype Theory Non-Monogamous Love as In-Between Cases "Love" is a Gradable Verb He's Just Not That Into You Ambivalence Chapter 8: How To Fall Out of Love Sigmund Freud and Friedrich Nietzsche Psychoanalysis and Talk Therapy Emotional Regulation and Avoidance Behavior The Repetition Technique Prolonged Exposure Therapy Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Deep Relaxation and Meditation Heartbreak and Placement Conditioning The Sinclair Method Out, Damned Spot: Using Soap to Wash Away Your Negative Feelings Emotional Regulation as a Route to Happiness The End: The Heart Wants What It Wants References
