A General Theory of Love

Book #14 was A General Theory of Love by Thomas Lewis, Fari Amini, and Richard Lannon. The concept of this book was really interesting; to quote the book jacket that lured me in:

'The heart has its reasons whereof Reason knows nothing.' In this fascinating account of the psychobiology of love, the authors uncover proof of Pascal's famous statment. Drawing on new scientific discoveries about the human brain, they describe the workings of our ancient, pivotal urge for intimacy, revealing that our nervous systems are not self-contained: from earliest childhood our brains actually link with those close to us in a silent rhythm that makes up the life force of the body. ... A General Theory of Love applies these extraordinary insights to some of the most crucial issues we face, explaining how relationships function, how parents shape a child's developing self, how psychotherapy really works, what fosteres violence in children, and how modern society dangerously flouts our most basic emotional laws."

It's not really that the book doesn't answer all of these questions, it's that it is a little too basic if you've already read other good books on the brain and takes valuable chapters that could be devoted to more unique insights to evangelizing psychotherapy. I contrast that to John Ratley's book A User's Guide to the Brain, which does a much better job at the same task with much more depth and without nearly as much fawning over therapy and its benefits. Having said that, I'm very much alone on this opinion - which you can amply see from all the praise heaped on the book on the Amazon site :)

On the plus side, the cover picture is fantasic.