Love Sick: Love as a Mental Illness

Everyone should read this. It gives a clear view of how we came to be obsessed by falling in love, and how inevitable the process is biologically. One's eyes are opened to the phenomenon. You won't look at love, falling in love and the endless litany of love songs and stories in the same way again. Frankly I'm over it. It doesn't have to be depressing, as it does just move us away from seeing ourselves as a special class of being, and puts us right where we should be and have always been, - one of the primates of the planet.

This is a very well-written, thorough exploration of how romantic love has been experienced and regarded throughout history in different cultures. Drawing on an impressive store of knowledge of history, literature and psychology, the author makes a very persuasive case that romantic love is an evolutionary adaptation to encourage pair-bonding of sufficient length for the male of the species to participate in protecting and providing for offspring. Lest that seem utterly "unromantic," he makes a distinction between the white-hot infatuation of love at first sight and the more mature and prolonged "companionate love" that keeps couples together. It's fascinating the see the similarities between the symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder and manic-depression and the experience of being "love sick." If this were a standard textbook for first-year college students, it could save a lot of heartache and bad decisions.

I have sort of mixed feelings about this book. If you are struggling with a broken heart and the anguish that love can bring, this author portrays a deep understanding of the risks of loving passionately. The book is well researched and has a number of interesting references from history and literature. For me, this book served to illuminate that others have struggled in a similar way to myself. Dr. Tallis is a British psychologist with a deep understanding of lovesickness, so I placed a lot of hope on finding answers here to help me overcome what has become a major wall in my life. I thought perhaps he knew a way to alleviate the psychic pain and give some semblance of peace of mind. I waited to reach that point in the book, and it never came. It ended, somewhat abruptly, and though there were parts that were quite validating, there was no suggestion of a plan to deal with the problem so aptly described. It is possible that the reason it fell short of providing this is because such a solution does not exist. If you are unlucky enough to know what I am talking about, you also may have a wound that will simply never heal.

I was hoping this book would offer advice on what to do when you are suffering from love sickness but instead it just went into detail describing the symptoms and history

I really hit bottom reading this book. it shattered alot of misconceptions and bad habits for me. The truth hurts. But I have a healthy new foundation to build on. This book is really helpful.

Helpful in understanding my emotions in difficult situation.

Very good book. I can very much recommend this to two groups in particular; Those who love psychology and those in unrequited love. It will be of great interest to one and of great inspiration to the other.

This is the book I need right now. it has an academic and daily life approach to the subject. It will be a nice lecture for me.

rceived as promised,& promptly too