Love Sense

Name: Love Sense
Rating: 4 (1 reviews)
ISBN: 9780316251082

The Revolutionary New Science of Romantic Relationships

By Sue Johnson

Sue Johnson makes the scientific case that romantic love is not a cultural luxury but a biological need—an attachment bond wired into the brain and body as deeply as the need for food and shelter. Drawing on neuroscience, emotion research, and Emotionally Focused Therapy, she traces how love functions across the lifespan, what happens in the brain and body during connection and disconnection, and how couples can move from cycles of protest and withdrawal back toward renewal. The final section addresses what a love-informed culture might look like in the twenty-first century.

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Concepts

Love as Attachment Bond
Johnson's reframing of romantic love not as a cultural construct or emotion but as a hardwired biological need for a safe, responsive connection figure — as fundamental as food and shelter.
Protest Polka
The escalating pursue-withdraw dance in which one partner's anxious pursuit triggers the other's defensive withdrawal, which triggers more pursuit, in a loop driven entirely by attachment fear.
Misattunement and Reattunement
The natural cycle in relationships where moments of disconnection are followed by repair; Johnson argues that the repair, not the absence of rupture, is what builds secure bonds.
Unraveling Bonds
The gradual process by which demand-withdraw cycles, criticism, and stonewalling erode the sense of safe haven between partners, creating emotional isolation within a committed relationship.
Renewing Bonds
The EFT-informed path back from disconnection, involving de-escalation of negative cycles, deeper emotional disclosure, and the creation of new bonding events that rebuild felt security.

Chapters

Introduction
Part 1. The Relationship Revolution
Chapter 1. Love - A Paradigm Shift
Chapter 2. Attachment - The Key of Love
Part 2. The New Science of Love
Chapter 3. The Emotions
Chapter 4. The Brain
Chapter 5. The Body
Part 3. Love in Action
Chapter 6. Love Across Time
Chapter 7. Unraveling Bonds
Chapter 8. Renewing Bonds
Part 4. The New Science Applied
Chapter 9. A Love Story
Chapter 10. Love in teh 21st Century
Acknowledgements
Resources
References