Do you believe in love at first sight? The Greeks and the Romans certainly did. But far from enjoying this romantic moment carefree, they saw it as a cruel experience and an infection. Then what are the symptoms of falling in love? Are there any remedies? Any form of immunity? This book explores the conception of love (erôs) as a physical, emotional, and mental disease, a social-ethical disorder, and a literary unorthodoxy in Greek and Latin literature. Through illustrative case studies, the contributors to this volume examine two distinct, yet historically and poetically interrelated traditions of ‘pathological love’: lovesickness as/similar to disease and deviant sexuality described in nosologic terms. The chapters represent a wide range of genres (lyric poetry, philosophy, oratory, comedy, tragedy, elegy, satire, novel, and of course medical literature) and a fascinating synthesis of methodologies and approaches, including textual criticism, comparative philology, narratology, performance theory, and social history. The book closes with an anthology of Greek and Latin passages on pathological erôs. While primarily aimed at an academic readership, the book is accessible to anyone interested in Classics and/or the theme of love.

Pathologies of Love examines the role of medicine in the debate on women, known as the querelle des femmes, in early modern France. Questions concerning women’s physical makeup and its psychological and moral consequences played an integral role in the querelle. This debate on the status of women and their role in society began in the fifteenth century and continued through the sixteenth and, as many critics would say, well beyond. In querelle works early modern medicine, women’s sexual difference, literary reception, and gendered language often merge. Literary authors perpetuated medical ideas such as the notion of allegedly fatal lovesickness, and physicians published works that included disquisitions on the moral nature of women. In Pathologies of Love, Judy Kem looks at the writings of Christine de Pizan, Jean Molinet, Symphorien Champier, Jean Lemaire de Belges, and Marguerite de Navarre, examining the role of received medical ideas in the querelle des femmes. She reconstructs how these authors interpreted the traditional courtly understanding of women’s pity or mercy on a dying lover, their understanding of contemporary debates about women’s supposed sexual insatiability and its biological effects on men’s lives and fertility, and how erotomania or erotic melancholy was understood as a fatal illness. While the two women who frame this study defended women and based much of what they wrote on personal experience, the three men appealed to male authority and tradition in their writings.

This book offers a unique framework for examining the various types of family murder-delving into the commonalities, the differences, and society's misconceptions and providing readers with a comprehensive guide to begin to understand these tragedies.

Pathologies of Love examines the role of medicine in the debate on women, known as the querelle des femmes, in early modern France. Questions concerning women’s physical makeup and its psychological and moral consequences played an integral role in the querelle. This debate on the status of women and their role in society began in the fifteenth century and continued through the sixteenth and, as many critics would say, well beyond. In querelle works early modern medicine, women’s sexual difference, literary reception, and gendered language often merge. Literary authors perpetuated medical ideas such as the notion of allegedly fatal lovesickness, and physicians published works that included disquisitions on the moral nature of women. In Pathologies of Love, Judy Kem looks at the writings of Christine de Pizan, Jean Molinet, Symphorien Champier, Jean Lemaire de Belges, and Marguerite de Navarre, examining the role of received medical ideas in the querelle des femmes. She reconstructs how these authors interpreted the traditional courtly understanding of women’s pity or mercy on a dying lover, their understanding of contemporary debates about women’s supposed sexual insatiability and its biological effects on men’s lives and fertility, and how erotomania or erotic melancholy was understood as a fatal illness. While the two women who frame this study defended women and based much of what they wrote on personal experience, the three men appealed to male authority and tradition in their writings.

Do you believe in love at first sight? The Greeks and the Romans certainly did. But far from enjoying this romantic moment carefree, they saw it as a cruel experience and an infection. Then what are the symptoms of falling in love? Are there any remedies? Any form of immunity? This book explores the conception of love (erôs) as a physical, emotional, and mental disease, a social-ethical disorder, and a literary unorthodoxy in Greek and Latin literature. Through illustrative case studies, the contributors to this volume examine two distinct, yet historically and poetically interrelated traditions of 'pathological love' lovesickness as/similar to disease and deviant sexuality described in nosologic terms. The chapters represent a wide range of genres (lyric poetry, philosophy, oratory, comedy, tragedy, elegy, satire, novel, and of course medical literature) and a fascinating synthesis of methodologies and approaches, including textual criticism, comparative philology, narratology, performance theory, and social history. The book closes with an anthology of Greek and Latin passages on pathological erôs. While primarily aimed at an academic readership, the book is accessible to anyone interested in Classics and/or the theme of love.

This original and lucid account of the complexities of love and its essential role in human well-being draws on the latest scientific research. Three eminent psychiatrists tackle the difficult task of reconciling what artists and thinkers have known for thousands of years about the human heart with what has only recently been learned about the primitive functions of the human brain. A General Theory of Love demonstrates that our nervous systems are not self-contained: from earliest childhood, our brains actually link with those of the people close to us, in a silent rhythm that alters the very structure of our brains, establishes life-long emotional patterns, and makes us, in large part, who we are. Explaining how relationships function, how parents shape their child’s developing self, how psychotherapy really works, and how our society dangerously flouts essential emotional laws, this is a work of rare passion and eloquence that will forever change the way you think about human intimacy.

This indispensable book about love and mental health addresses the short-term, daily problems of living with a person with mental illness, as well as long-term planning and care. Of special note are the forty-three “Quick Reference Guides” about such topics as: responding to hallucinations, delusions, violence and anger; helping your loved one comply with treatment plans and medication; deciding if the person should live at home or in a facility; choosing a doctor and dealing with mental health professionals; handling the holidays and family activities; managing stress; helping siblings and adult children with their special concerns. “Ms. Woolis produced a handbook which is both practical and accessible, eminently useful for all of us who have a family member with a serious mental illness.” –E. Fuller Torrey, M.D., author of Surviving Schizophrenia “Rebecca Woolis presents easy-to-follow practical guidelines for coping with the multitude of problems that regularly confront families. In minutes the reader can find helpful suggestions for dealing with any problem that might arise.” –Christopher S. Amenson, Ph.D., Director, Pacific Clinics East

Intimate love opens us up to suffering, sacrifice, and loss. Is it always worth the risk? Consulting philosophers, writers, and poets who draw insights from material life, Diane Enns shines a light on the limits of erotic love, exploring its paradoxes through personal and philosophical reflections. Situating experience at the center of her inquiry, Enns conducts philosophy "by another name," elaborating the ambiguities and risks of love with visceral clarity. Love in the Dark claims that intimacy must accept risk as long as love does not destroy the self. Erotic love inspires an inexplicable affirmation of another but can erode autonomy and vulnerability. There is a limit to love, and appreciating it requires a rethinking of love's liberal paradigms, which Enns traces back to the hostility toward the body and eros in Christianity and the Western philosophical tradition. Against a legacy of an abstract and sanitized love, Enns recasts erotic attachment as an event linked to conditional circumstances. The value of love lies in its intensity and depth, and its end does not negate love's truth or significance. Writing in a lyrical, genre-defying style, Enns delineates the paradoxes of love in its relations to lust, abuse, suffering, and grief to reach an account faithful to human experience.

Barriers to Loving is an intriguing exploration of the role of sexual love over the course of life. Beginning with the mental health professions’ avoidance of the topic, Levine proposes a compendium of love’s pathologies by reorganizing what is familiar to clinicians into the barriers that limit the formation of adult-adult love, impediments that diminish a partner’s lovability, and the impediments to feeling and expressing love for a partner. Before reviewing scientific contributions to the understanding of love, he explores the topics of sexual excess and infidelity and how they relate to the aspiration to love and be loved. The final two chapters synthesize with clarity what to teach about love to young professionals in order to prepare them for the complexities they will soon encounter and provide a sophisticated answer to the question, What is love? Barriers to Loving integrates humanism, science, and clinical experience in Levine’s long-appreciated unique and mature voice.

Internationally renowned psychoanalytic theorist and clinician Dr. Otto Kernberg here examines the success and failure of sexual love in couples, from adolescence to old age. Dr. Kernberg considers both "normal" and pathological relationships, including the role of narcissism, masochism, and aggression in each. The result expands the boundaries of our current understanding of love relations.