Unrequited
Subtitle: women and romantic obsession
By: Lisa A. Phillips
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Number of pages: 291
ISBN-13: 9780062114013
Copyright date: 2015
Subjects: Romance; Women; Psychology; Stalking; Stalkers; Biography; Unrequited love
Description: The summer Lisa A. Phillips turned thirty, she fell in love with someone who didn't return her feelings. She soon became obsessed. She followed him around, called him compulsively, and talked about him endlessly. One desperate morning, after she snuck into his apartment building, he picked up a baseball bat to protect himself and began to dial 911. Her unrequited love had changed her from a sane, conscientious college teacher and radio reporter into someone she barely recognized -- someone who was taking her yearning much too far. In Unrequited, Phillips explores the tremendous force of obsessive love in women's lives. She argues that it needs to be understood, respected, and channeled for personal growth -- yet it also has the potential to go terribly awry. Interweaving her own story with frank interviews and in-depth research in science, psychology, cultural history, and literature, Phillips describes how romantic obsession takes root, grows, and strongly influences our thoughts and behaviors.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 275-279) and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction: The unwanted woman; title: Do you love me?: The allure of unsatisfied desire; title: Holding out: Following the script of unrequited love; title: Erotic melancholy: Lovesickness as a label of shame; title: Boy chasers: The (fe)male urge to pursue; title: Falling from the stars: Losing yourself to the narcissism of unrequited love; title: The gender pass: Female stalkers and their invisible victims; title: Crush: Unrequited love as girl power; title: Primal teacher: The transformational power of unrequited love; title: Letting go: How obsession ends.