Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating trek into the science of love
Review: "Why We Love" is one of the most interesting books available today on the subject of love. From years of empirical research finally comes a fact filled fascinating book on love. Helen Fisher examines the chemical basis of love; yes there are chemical changes when you are in love. From workings of specific chemicals like dopamine, norepinephrine, and seratonin to fMRI examinations of the brain the book is packed with hard empirical research results. In addition to this she looks at evolutionary factors in things like how we choose our mate and how that process is different for men and women. Not to leave any stone unturned she also discusses the problem of lost love and its effects on our body and emotional health. Finally she discusses how to make romance last and includes a fascinating section on intimacy differences between male and female. "Why We Love" deserves the highest recommendation that I can give and is a book that I am likely not only to recommend but also to purchase as a gift for others who want to understand the phenomenon of love. Bravo Helen Fisher for such an enlightening work that is sure to become the new standard by which similar works will be judged.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating trek into the science of love
Review: "Why We Love" is one of the most interesting books available today on the subject of love. From years of empirical research finally comes a fact filled fascinating book on love. Helen Fisher examines the chemical basis of love; yes there are chemical changes when you are in love. From workings of specific chemicals like dopamine, norepinephrine, and seratonin to fMRI examinations of the brain the book is packed with hard empirical research results. In addition to this she looks at evolutionary factors in things like how we choose our mate and how that process is different for men and women. Not to leave any stone unturned she also discusses the problem of lost love and its effects on our body and emotional health. Finally she discusses how to make romance last and includes a fascinating section on intimacy differences between male and female. "Why We Love" deserves the highest recommendation that I can give and is a book that I am likely not only to recommend but also to purchase as a gift for others who want to understand the phenomenon of love. Bravo Helen Fisher for such an enlightening work that is sure to become the new standard by which similar works will be judged.
Rating:
Summary: Best of Baboon Love available for Humans
Review: Capacity to love might be considered one of the essential components of love. The review article that identifies baboons as driven to express that love in the grooming exercises they do, and the desire to groom the one to whom they are attracted is likely a natural function of the desire to touch, nurture and fondle the ones we love. Trying to refrain is difficult at best but may provide the indicator of when love does and does not exist. Presuming baboons have the need to nourish the soul as well as by the act of grooming, adding the emotional support to the intended, we might presume that humans are capable of the same, and further, that humans also tend to incorporate the brain in that endeavor, thereby enhancing the natural feelings into the expressive communication that creates bonding, similar to what is done with a child, but especially contoured and molded into the attentions that are most likely to be suitable for that age. Lacking those initially, it's likely that love may be missing, or unable to be well expressed. Through time, the modification of habits formed from repetition reduce the need to touch and fondle since the emotional feeling is programmed and stays present between couples. However, it is a wise couple that continues to reinforce those feelings with continued efforts to express that love, since through that comfort, their relationship is made all the more solid, and loving. The capacity to love, however, is directly related to having been loved, and the desire to show that love through actions meant to ritualize the relationship and reduce uncertainty. If baboons are smart enough to do that, shouldn't human be also?
Rating: 
Summary: The Science of Romantic Love
Review: From time immemorial philosophers, poets, writers, and probably anyone else who could voice an opinion have pondered over the question, what is romantic love?In fact, if you ask someone to describe its attributes, you would probably be informed that once you experience romantic love it is difficult to control. For those of us who have been fortunate enough to have fallen in love, we are well aware of some of the effects it may have on us, such as, being obsessed with our partners, distorted reality, emotional and physical dependence, personality changes, and domination of our drives to eat and sleep. In 1996, renowned anthropologist, Dr. Helen Fisher, with a team of behavioral scientists, set out to investigate the mystery of "being in love." Their objective was to find out why we love, why we choose the people that we choose, the differences between male and female feelings as it pertains to romance, animal love, love at first sight, love and lust, love and marriage, evolution of love, love and hate, and the brain in love.
The culmination of this study has now been summed in Dr. Fisher's book, Why We Love: The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love.
In order to scientifically study these themes, Dr. Fisher and her team used the newest technology for brain scanning known as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The team endeavored to record men and women's brain activity, after they had just fallen madly in love. The principal objective was to record the range of feelings associated with "being in love." Dr. Fisher's findings are extremely interesting, particularly the observations she and her team were able to make with their brain scanner concerning the different brain regions that become active when their subjects felt romantic ecstasy. A strong believer in the theory that romantic love is a universal human feeling that produces specific chemicals and networks in the brain; the author was determined to discover what effect these chemicals and networks had on the human brain. Consequently, her study focused on collecting scientific data on the chemistry and brain circuitry of romantic love, and more particularly on dopamine and norepinephrine, as well as a related brain substance, serotonin.
Dr. Fisher states that the reason why she concentrated on these chemicals was because the "attraction animals feel for particular mates is linked with elevated levels of dopamine and/or norepinephrine in the brain." Moreover, as she states, "all three of these chemicals produce many of the sensations of human romantic passions." The method used by Dr. Fisher and her team was to ask their love-smitten subjects to look at a photograph of his or her beloved, and secondly to look at another photograph of an acquaintance who generated no positive or negative romantic feelings. Pictures were taken of the brain and blood flows in the brain were also recorded. Dr. Fisher's observations are presented in an engaging style devoid of technical terms, and will go a long way with its interesting insights in helping us understand more about romantic love.
Moreover, this fascinating analysis of romantic love reveals a great deal more about the subject than we may have initially perceived. As a side note, I found it somewhat amusing that Dr. Fisher had prefaced her chapters with quotes from many literary giants as Shakespeare, Yeats, Shelley, Dickens, and others who have written about romantic love.
Many of these quotes only reconfirm Dr. Fisher's scientific findings, and will probably seduce readers in rushing back to read the romantic writings of these literary figures. Norm Goldman Editor of Bookpleasures.com
Rating:
Summary: The Science of Romantic Pleasure!
Review: Helen Fisher is witty, wise and accessible. As a longtime fan of her writing, I have to wonder about reviewers who deride the notion of staying attractive and smiling more. It may sound like "fluff" but the point of romance is to feel happy and sexually aroused -- and to keep your mate in that mood as well. If you care more about getting a good interest rate on your mutually owned property, then this book might not be for you. If you want to agonize about gender politics while pushing a stroller, it's also not for you. But if you are intrigued by love, if you want to be smart about your personal life while also having some FUN while you are still alive this is a great read. I find the bitterness and negativity expressed by some people very sad -- romantic pleasure is a wonderful thing. Without it, we run the risk of turning into negative prunes. This book is a great antidote to the prunelike social forces who conspire against romantic/erotic love. Dr Fisher is helping to keep Eros on the agenda.
Rating:
Summary: wish i'd read this earlier in life
Review: I am a big fan of Helen Fisher. She has her way with words to make the most dense subject fascinating. This book is no exception. I kept thinking how this book might have saved me time and grief in my 30's. Anyone in the throes of love will understand the agitation of the situation after reading this book and anyone looking for love will look more intelligently. What more is there?
Rating:
Summary: wish i'd read this earlier in life
Review: I am a big fan of Helen Fisher. She has her way with words to make the most dense subject fascinating. This book is no exception. I kept thinking how this book might have saved me time and grief in my 30's. Anyone in the throes of love will understand the agitation of the situation after reading this book and anyone looking for love will look more intelligently. What more is there?
Rating: 
Summary: Why do we love books like this?
Review: I found this book a disappointment. Dr. Fisher's earlier book, The Sex Contract, was a popular and accessible review of some important ideas about evolution and human behavior. They have been around for 20 years or more but hadn't reached a lay audience. Nothing wrong with popularizing science. It's a public service. Personally, I'd suggest Sara Hrdy's The Woman Who Never Evolved and Mother Nature as the books about evolution, sex, and bonding that will stand the test of time. Unfortunately, Dr. Fisher's new book is less a service to science or the public than The Sex Contract. Indeed her books seem to me to be steadily sliding downward from popularization of science to mere popularization. Notwithstanding social scientists' current enthusiasm for brain research, we are still very early in the game. In most respects we don't know the right questions to ask or how to frame them. We rarely know what the answers are like, muchless the details or how they might be translated into practical applications. Dr. Fisher presents a few facts about neurotransmitters as explaining far more than they reasonably can. There are the obligatory cautions and qualifications but they aren't allowed to get in the way of the story. A great deal of the most careful neuroscience research on bonding and parenting is on mice. Nice little brains, inexpensive to feed, and they are mammals. But their evolutionary solution to mating, having young, and parenting is dramatically different from ours. The adults don't form lasting bonds. They have an amazing number of offspring which require care for only a very brief time, and their young do not have lifelong bonds to the parents. As Dr. Fisher points out in her previous books, humans are dramatically different. We differ from rodents (and most other species) in our monogamous bonding, paternal investment in young, small number of offspring, their extrordinarily long immaturity, the duration of care we provide, and the duration of chidren's bonds to their parents. It would be nice to know in detail how the chemistry of the mouse brain explains mouse behavior. It might help us ask the right questions about human brains and behavior. But it doesn't seem likely that the same mechanisms would account for such very different behavior in humans. Read the book. Enjoy the story. It will give you the "feeling of knowing". Just don't take any pills, accept any mental health or marital advice, make any decisions about your romantic life, or do a term paper in biology or biopsychology without a trip to the library.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I liked Helen Fisher's previous book Anatomy of Love but this one is a disappointment. The new science is skimpy. She reports findings from a single unpublished fmri study and a questionnaire. So, after reading sappho or ovid, one gets sentences such as "65% of men agreed with the statement that being in love made them feel lighter than air" She's clearly not a brain scientist. Her discussions of the neurotransmitters which she annoyingly calls "liquors" and brain anatomy is simplified and rudimentary.
Last, its extremely quote heavy, so much so that she could easily make a separate book out of all the quotes. Her own writing in contrast is uninspired, e.g. "Please meet the prairie vole." "Now nature's timeless dance would begin."
Rating:
Summary: narrow
Review: I read some of this book on loan...and also listened to the author's interview concerning this book. Most of what I've read and heard is a bunch of fluff that might appeal to some mass market along the lines of Oprah psychology. Why people spend so much time and "research" on trying to define the source of a love gene is beyond me. What is the end goal? It's as if learning the "root" cause of love will somehow provide great insight into what we already know and experience about love: science cannot explain the human heart and its complexities. Like a character in a Woody Allen movie, most people cannot fathom their own hearts and the depths and complexities involving the mystery we call love. Nonetheless, I don't blame any researcher for trying to earn a living delving into the "un-delvable!"
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