First published in 1992, Helen Fisher’s “fascinating” (New York Times) Anatomy of Love was a New York Times “Notable Book” and became a classic. Since then, Fisher has conducted pioneering brain research (using fMRI) on lust, romantic love, and attachment; gathered data on more than 28,000 people to explain why you love who you love; and collected scientific information on more than 50,000 men and women on sexting, hooking up, friends with benefits, video chatting and other current trends in courtship, sex, love and marriage.
So in this second edition, she presents a host of new, scientifically based data on the evolution and future of human social life and an optimistic perspective on relationships in our digital age, what she calls “slow love.”
This cutting-edge tour de force traces human family life from its origins in Africa over 4 million years ago to the Internet dating sites and bedrooms of today. It’s got it all: the copulatory gaze, the four-part flirt and other natural courting ploys; the who, when, where, and why of adultery; love addictions; her discovery of four broad chemically-based personality styles and what each seeks in romance; the newest data on worldwide (biologically based) patterns of divorce; how and why men and women think differently; the real story of women, men, and power; the rise and fall of the sexual double standard; and what brain science tells us about how to make and keep a happy partnership.
A contemporary classic about love now completely revised and updated. All publications of Anatomy of Love: in 24 countries
“This book is a marvel… So illuminating.” John Gottman
“Is romantic love a creation of troubadours and poets, or has it deep evolutionary roots? Is the seven-year itch really the four-year itch? Does true love betray itself in a brain scanner? With the eyes of an anthropologist and the voice of a poet, Helen Fisher lays bare the many worlds and ages of erotic love. And she knows whereof she speaks.”
— Richard Dawkins.
“For journalists around the world, Helen Fisher has been the go-to authority on love and heartache since the first edition of Anatomy of Love. No one else knows the human heart so well or explains it with such wit and style.”
— John Tierney, coauthor of Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength