A General Theory of Love
by Fari Amini, Richard Lannon, Thomas Lewis
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Book Summary Information
Author: Fari Amini, Richard Lannon, Thomas LewisEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2001-01-09
ISBN: 0375709223
Number of pages: 288
Publisher: Vintage
Book Reviews of A General Theory of Love
Book Review: "Generally" Disappointing
Summary: 2 Stars
"It has been said that neurotics build castles in the sky, while psychotics live in them, and psychiatrists collect the rent." ~ pg. 6
While "A General Theory of Love" is elegantly written and occasionally fascinating the topic of love is discussed so infrequently it becomes a test of patience to see if you can make it to the next brief mention of love. It isn't that the book isn't interesting it just doesn't focus on love until page 117 and then love appears again on pages 144, 161 and 207. In general this book focuses on brain function to the extreme.
To be honest you will learn more about the limbic brain and parenting than anything else. Then there is the issue of animal experiments that was very disheartening. Why should animals suffer so that we can know that a child separated from its parents will die? I thought this book would at least be about emotions and specifically be about love. If I felt anything at this point it was anger.
So if you think this is a great book about love you will be sorely disappointed. The authors also go on and on about evolution which I found distracting and not very helpful. It takes less faith to just believe that God made Adam and Eve. Here is another example of a book with a good title that just doesn't deliver.
~The Rebecca Review
Summary of A General Theory of Love
Drawing comparisons to the most eloquent science writing of our day, three eminent psychiatrists tackle the difficult task of reconciling what artists and thinkers have known for thousands of years about the human heart with what has only recently been learned about the primitive functions of the human brain. The result is an original, lucid, at times moving account of the complexities of love and its essential role in human well-being.A General Theory of Love draws on the latest scientific research to demonstrate that our nervous systems are not self-contained: from earliest childhood, our brains actually link with those of the people close to us, in a silent rhythm that alters the very structure of our brains, establishes life-long emotional patterns, and makes us, in large part, who we are. Explaining how relationships function, how parents shape their child's developing self, how psychotherapy really works, and how our society dangerously flouts essential emotional laws, this is a work of rare passion and eloquence that will forever change the way you think about human intimacy.
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
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