Wired for Love
A Neuroscientist's Journey Through Romance, Loss, and the Essence of Human Connection
-
-
4.3 • 8 Ratings
-
-
- $11.99
Publisher Description
From the world’s foremost neuroscientist of romantic love comes a personal story of connection and heartbreak that brings new understanding to an old truth: better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.
At thirty-seven, Dr. Stephanie Cacioppo was content to be single. She was fulfilled by her work on the neuroscience of romantic love—how finding and growing with a partner literally reshapes our brains. That was, until she met the foremost neuroscientist of loneliness. A whirlwind romance led to marriage and to sharing an office at the University of Chicago. After seven years of being inseparable at work and at home, Stephanie lost her beloved husband, John, following his intense battle with cancer.
In Wired for Love, Stephanie tells not just a science story but also a love story. She shares revelatory insights into how and why we fall in love, what makes love last, and how we process love lost—all grounded in cutting-edge findings in brain chemistry and behavioral science. Woven through it all is her moving personal story, from astonishment to unbreakable bond to grief and healing. Her experience and her work enrich each other, creating a singular blend of science and lyricism that’s essential reading for anyone looking for connection.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Neuroscientist Cacioppo blends memoir and science in her debut, an enlightening testament to love's ability to enhance one's life. She begins with evolution, explaining how humankind's "primate ancestors" established pair bonds and positing that these precursors to romantic relationships created the necessary conditions for creating societies. She then breaks down the feel-good neurotransmitters generated by falling in love, and outlines a fascinating experiment she conducted at Dartmouth College called the "Love Machine," which was intended to help a person decide between two potential suitors by measuring brain function in response to subliminal messaging. Among the findings was that people performed better on tests after seeing the name of the person they "undoubtedly loved." Cacioppo also recounts her own love story: despite feeling like she'd "be alone forever," she fell in love with fellow social neuroscientist John Cacioppo in 2011. They married shortly thereafter; four years later, John was diagnosed with stage IV cancer and, in 2018, died, an experience she uses to explore the healing power of partnership: People "literally feel less pain when their significant other is touching them or even just in the same room. That's why I knew I could never leave John's side." Readers will be both fascinated and moved.
