Berit Brogaard

Mixed in with the philosophical discussion is a lot of psychological results, case studies of individuals experiencing irrational love, descriptions from fiction and media, and description of personal experiences, so it can be a little overwhelming to make sense of the topic. It seems funny that someone hasn't written something like this earlier, to my knowledge. The chapters are organized by theme drawing from all these disparate sources to draw some kind of conclusion, though not all of them end up with an airtight answer for the reader. Also I thought at first there was a distinction being drawn between a "feeling" and an "emotion," with one of them more fleeting than the other one, but I'm thinking that I might have gotten that wrong. It seems clear that the act of falling in love can happen very quickly for no clear reason, leaving the rest of the personality with the problem of what to do with this strong drive when it threatens the stability of other aspects of life. In the next to last chapter, the author sets forward some practical strategies for reducing or eliminating a love that has proven to be troublesome either because the other person is gone, destructive, imaginary, or simply uninterested, but it stops short of coming off like an advice book by not advocating one surefire strategy (beyond the passage of sufficient time). Given the amount of ink which has been spilled all through history about the trials of romantic love, I'm a little uncertain whether this book, short as it is, has been a fair treatment of every worthwhile suggestion without obviously neglecting some important thinking about the matter. I did enjoy reading it and would be interested in taking a look at her other works of nonfiction.
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