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Anatomy of Love: A Natural History of Mating, Marriage, and Why We Stray

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Title: Anatomy of Love: A Natural History of Mating, Marriage, and Why We Stray
by Helen Fisher
ISBN: 0-449-90897-6
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Pub. Date: 01 January, 1995
Format: Paperback
Volumes: 1
List Price(USD): $13.95
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Average Customer Rating: 4.27 (11 reviews)

Customer Reviews

Rating: 5
Summary: Almost 10 years old and I'm still talking about it.
Comment: Helen Fisher tackles an extraordinarily important but seldom scientifically scrutinized aspect of human existence; love.

In this book she delves into the physiological and behavioral contributors to the state of being in love. Referencing both nature and nurture, the animal kingdom, and (still relatively) modern science she makes a darn interesting case to support "objectively quantifiable" factors as being responsible for an oft classified "ethereal" love.

Fun, informative, intensly interesting, I recommend this book highly.

Enjoy...

Rating: 3
Summary: Interesting but deeply flawed
Comment: Dr. Fisher is to be congratulated for trying to extend our understanding of the mechanisms through which we experience the various forms of love she enumerates, and for trying to see beyond the trite social codes that are normally accepted at face value as received wisdom. But sadly her efforts are compromised by two fatal flaws. The first, and merely annoying, flaw is the inevitable requirement that a working academic must genuflect to the gods of Political Correctness. So after an interesting chapter that basically demonstrates we're unable to control ourselves when in the throes of strong emotion, she then makes the glib assertion that in fact we can and should control ourselves and never become stalkers etc. Dr. Fisher may herself believe in the moral "correctness" of this assertion but it is wholly unsupported by her work and therefore has no place in a would-be scientific book.

The far more serious flaw in the book is that Dr. Fisher, as she searches for explanations for some of the more dramatic mechanisms acting within us, seems utterly to misunderstand the rudiments of the theory of evolution. She posits all kinds of "evolutionary" forces that simply could never exist. She does not grasp that selection forces can only operate in the present and can never operate for some notional effect in the distant future. Evolution is simply not teleological, but this understanding eludes Dr. Fisher and so her "explanations" end up being silly and implausible.

So, what we have here is basically a work that provides a few tantalising glimpses into the biochemistry of emotions, yet fails to take more than the first baby-steps. It is greatly to be hoped that a more thoughtful and rigorous account will one day be written by some other researcher operating in this important area of study.

Rating: 5
Summary: Brilliant
Comment: This book has given me an entirely new outlook on life and myself. It is amazing how this book was able to erase years of shame pressed upon me by society.

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