The Incurable Romantic

And Other Tales of Madness and Desire

By: Frank Tallis

Narrated by: Simon Shepherd

A psychologist explores the intersection of love and madness through the riveting stories of the patients he has treated

In The Incurable Romantic, Frank Tallis recounts the extraordinary stories of patients who are, quite literally, madly in love: A woman becomes utterly convinced that her dentist is secretly infatuated with her and drives him to leave the country; a man destroys his massive fortune through trysts with more than 3,000 prostitutes - because his ego requires that they fall in love with him; a beautiful woman's pathological jealousy destroys the men who love her.

Along the way, we learn a great deal about the history of psychiatry and the role of neuroscience in addressing disordered love.

Elegantly written and infused with deep sympathy, The Incurable Romantic shows how all of us can become a bit crazy in love.

©2018 Frank Tallis (P)2018 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"Thoughtful...Tallis has a graceful narrative style, easily incorporating brief digressions on deeper philosophical issues such as free will versus determinism. Most importantly, his book is suffused with compassion, avoiding facile categorization and struggling to understand and empathize with his patients as people in pain." (Publishers Weekly)

"Moving, at times disturbing, and revealing - like having a productive, revelatory discussion with a trusted friend." (Kirkus Reviews)

"Writer and subject were rarely better matched. The pain and destructiveness of obsessive love takes many fascinating forms. In this superb study Frank Tallis brings a lifetime's clinical experience and wise reflection to a condition that, by its own strange routes, leads us into the very heart of love itself. This is a brilliant, compelling book." (Ian McEwan)

Great!

A collection of a psychoanalyst’s experience of what love and desire look like in a psychiatric setting.

I read quite a bit of psychology of interpersonal relationship books, and this is by far the most interesting (and least theoretical) one. It talks about love in the abnormal sense, and I like how the extreme presentations of longing are carefully illustrated here without judgment.

A must-read for aspiring psychologists who’ve read works on attachment styles, jealousy, abuse, obsession, etc. Because much of the issues we deal with in Psychology are related to desire and longing, but oftentimes academia refuse to go into details with these subjects.

Beautifully written and narrated- a truly humbling book.

Brilliant And Fascinating

This isn't in my typical sphere of interest but it caught my eye in my Xmas shopping spree and thus landed in my library anyway. It's a superbly told fly-on-the-wall perspective view of a psychiatrist's couch when love makes people go mad. I learned an enormous amount about various peculiar disorders, I laughed a bit and found myself scared stiff when the author confronted a would-be mass murderer. If you think you might enjoy this - I can pretty much guarantee that you will enjoy it. Absolutely fantastic book and one I shall return to again at a later date.