Synopses & Reviews
Common wisdom has it that love is fragile, but leading psychoanalyst Stephen A. Mitchell argues that romance doesn't actually diminish in long-term relationships--it becomes increasingly dangerous. What we regard as the transience of love is really risk management. Mitchell shows that love can endure, if only we become aware of our self-destructive efforts to protect ourselves from its risks. "Those who read this book will love more wisely because of it."--Andrew Solomon, author of "[A] work on romance that is rich and multi-layered."-- "Cheerful, open, and humane--you'd definitely have wanted him as your analyst."--Judith Shulevitz, Book Review "[T]houghtful, compassionate, and profoundly optimistic."--JoAnn Gutin, Salon.com
Review
"By mixing the case study method, so common in self-help books, with scholarly insight, Mitchell creates a work on romance that is rich and multilayered, giving the individual stories more weight and the intellectual commentary more humanity." Publishers Weekly
Review
"[T]houghtful, compassionate and profoundly optimistic....Drawing on case histories...Mitchell builds a quirky, original and ultimately convincing case. His is emphatically not a glib, accessible self-help book, which makes summarizing his argument hard; everything is connected to everything else. Still, the overall freshness of the thought is unmistakable." JoAnn Gutin, Salon.com (read the entire Salon review)
Review
"With this book...[Mitchell] has left us his brilliant insight and gentle guidance on matters of love and romance. Using both case studies and intelligent analyses, he shows us that love can endure. A perfect Valentine gift." Shelley Wu, Ph.D., About.com
Review
"It will hold you, as it held me, in its thrall." Mark Epstein, M.D., author of Thoughts without a Thinker
Synopsis
"A beautiful and brilliant reexamination of love and its perils."--Barbara Fisher,
About the Author
Stephen A. Mitchell died in 2000 at the pinnacle of his career as a theorist and clinician. He is the co-author of Freud and Beyond.