Helen Fisher died, peacefully at home, on August 17th, 2024. The cause was endometrial cancer. Despite growing weak in her final weeks in hospice care, she completed her manuscript for a book about her personality research, Thinking Four Ways: How to Connect With Anyone Using Neuroscience, and submitted it five days before her death. It will be published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf and in more than a dozen foreign editions.
The New York Times published an obituary on August 22, 2024.
Obituaries have been published in The Economist, The Times of London, and The Telegraph, and her career was featured in The Economist's podcast, The Intelligence, on August 30th.
Tributes to her life and work have been published by the Kinsey Institute and at Nautilus and YourTango.
The Kinsey Institute, where Helen served as Senior Research Fellow for many years, will be honoring her legacy by establishing the Helen Fisher Distinguished Lecture. Kinsey is accepting donations for this endowed fund, which will support a lecture at least every two years and recognize writers and researchers continuing the work pioneered by Helen in the science of love, sex, and relationships. The first lecture will take place in New York City.
Donate: Helen Fisher Distinguished Lecture.
If you have any questions about the Helen Fisher Distinguished Lecture, you can contact Derek Dixon, Senior Director of Development at the Kinsey Institute, by email (dsdixon @ iu.edu) or phone (812-855-2586).
Inquiries about the use of her writing and research can be directed to her literary executor, John Tierney (johntierneynyc@gmail.com), or her literary agent, Christy Fletcher of the United Talent Agency (christy.fletcher @ unitedtalent.com).
Books
Books that discuss my data on the brain systems associated with one’s basic temperament
Helen Fisher, Ph.D., is one of America’s most prominent anthropologists and the author of six internationally best-selling books on the science of romantic love, attachment, adultery, divorce, and the evolution and future of human family life. She is currently also studying the biological basis of personality and how to use brain science to build teams, spark innovation, lead more effectively and “win friends and influence people” at work, love and life.
Helen's Books