Love: Decoded: Understanding the Feeling and How to Make the Most of It, Hardcover

What makes for a healthy and lasting union in which love prevails? Experts give advcie on how to keep relationships strogn from initial attraction to lasting love. Love Decoded provides everything you need to ensure your passion thrives, whether you're celebrating your first anniversary or your 50th

As recently as the 19th century, marriage was largely a practical affair--people married for financial security, to create family, to have a home. If love entered the picture, it was by chance. But starting in the 1900s through to today, marriage and long-term partnerships of all kinds have gone through rapid, radical, continuous change: Today, enduring unions enable love, creativity, and the chance for personal growth--in the wake of a divorce rate at 50%, researchers say, those relationships that allow us to flourish as individuals have the greatest chance of long success.

This book describes the 21st century reinvention of enduring unions with input from researchers and therapists at the forefront of the field. Stephanie Coontz, the social historian known for her seminal work on the transformation of marriage, explains how love has conquered marriage. David Sncharch, who reinvented sex therapy for the 21st century in the wake of Master's and Johnson, describes his new model of interconnectedness--in which partners can be independent while pursuing a shared life. And Aaron Ben-Ze-ev, the preeminent philosopher of love and author of the upcoming Arc of Love, explains how long-term relationships can enable profound love and flourishing--not possible when one skips from one passionate fling to the next.

Of course, this book covers the gamut of pragmatic issues too: How to get along with in-laws, how to collaborate on raising kids, and how to rebuild the nest when kids have gone.

The book includes invaluable advice from couples who have been married for 50 years or more. "Dance," one woman told us. "Keep talking," a man said. Our story about today's all-star couples, from Hollywood to royalty, injects some fun while showing how it's done.

About author(s):Pamela Weintraub is a veteran journalist specializing in psychology, life sciences, and culture. She is former editor-in-chief of OMNI, executive editor of Discover, and currently the psychology and health editor of Aeon. She is author or co-author of 16 books. For the last two years, much of her work's focus has been on covering animal psychology and the animal mind.