Cognitive and Neuroscientific Aspects of Human Love: A Guide for Marriage and Couples Counseling (Psychology of Emotions, Motivations and Actions Series)

This book is about the science of human love, and the authors do a thorough and illuminating job discussing it. For many people, howerver professional or otherwise - love encompasses much more than any scientific treatment of it could offer. Having taught many courses over the years on love, marriage and family psychology, Dr. Emener and Dr. Lambos often have asked their students, both young and old, many newly graduated with their bachelor's degree and some who held doctorates in other subjects, what the term "love" meant to them.

From the author of the book's Foreword: The authors...avoid much of the ubiquitous nonsense about relationships that contemporary life seems flooded with...they have tried to ground their points in genuinely observable, scientifically defensible truths about the human brain and the human heart rather than contemporary prejudice...[and]... have tried and to a great extent succeeded in avoiding arbitrary therapeutic theoretical biases...

But there isn't a lot that should be important to beginning students of couples work - or experienced therapists for that matter - that is missing here.

There are also wonderful examples of the use of diagrams and sketches in therapy, simple drawings that can clearly transform how clients see themselves and their partners.

...this book is a gem. With a number of other good works for anyone who works with couples, it is a rich contribution to our field.

Scott Johnson, PhD, Director, Marriage and Family Therapy Doctoral Program, Family Therapy Center of Virginia Tech University 2007-2009 president of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy

William A. Lambos, Ph.D., is chief cognitive neuroscientist and a partner of CNS Wellness, Florida, an integrated healthcare practice specializing in the brain-based treatment of mental health and developmental learning issues.
William G. Emener, Ph.D., is a distinguished research professor emeritus in, and the former chair of, the Department of Rehabilitation and Mental Health Counseling and a former associate dean at the University of South Florida, Tampa.