Love sick : love as a mental illness / Frank Tallis.

Author/creator Tallis, Frank
Format Book
Edition1st U.S. ed.
Publication InfoNew York : Thunder's Mouth Press, 2005.
Descriptionxiii, 318 pages ; 21 cm
Subjects

Portion of title Love as a mental illness
Contents Latent fire -- Diagnosing love -- A necessary madness -- Incurable romantics -- Hallucinating beauty -- Obsession -- Too close for comfort -- The green-ey'd monster -- Addicted to love -- What becomes of the broken-hearted? -- A many-splendored thing.
Abstract An exploration of how the symptoms of mental illness have been used to describe the state of being in love. Obsessive thoughts, erratic mood swings, insomnia, loss of appetite, recurrent and persistent images and impulses, superstitious or ritualistic compulsions, delusion, the inability to concentrate--exhibiting just a few of these symptoms is enough to merit a diagnosis of a depressive episode. Yet we all subconsciously welcome them when we allow ourselves to fall in love. Tallis, an authority on obsessive disorders, considers why the combinations of pleasure and pain, ecstasy and despair, rapture and grief have come to characterize what we mean when we speak of falling in love, and questions just how healthy our attitudes are and whether there may in fact be more sane, less tortured ways to love. --From publisher description.
General noteReprint. Originally published: London : Century, 2004.
Bibliography noteIncludes bibliographical references (p. 291-304) and index.
ISBN1560256478

Availability

Library Location Call Number Status Item Actions
Joyner General Stacks BF575.L8 T34 2005 ✔ Available Place Hold