Love often strikes like a thunderbolt - inexplicable, unaccountable, and often painful. Moreover, we often think that to fall in love means to surrender both our freedom and our reason. But is this true? What is the relationship between love and other, ‘rational’ emotions, and does it mean surrendering our power and our freedom to another?

In this course, philosopher of mind and cognitive neuroscientist Berit Brogaard looks at our brain chemistry and psychology to reveal simple truths about this complex emotion.

By the end of this course, you will have learnt:

• Why a broken heart is more than just a metaphor
• Whether we should understand love as an emotion or a drive.
• What happens to our brain chemistry when we fall in and out of love.
• How to understand the difference between rational and irrational feelings.
• The evolutionary advantages of falling in love.
• How to use neuroscience to get over a breakup.

As part of the course, there are in-video quiz questions to consolidate your learning, suggested further readings to stimulate a deeper exploration of the topic, discussion boards to have your say, and an end-of-course assessment set by Professor Brogaard.

IAI Academy courses are designed to be challenging but accessible to the interested student. No specialist knowledge is required.

Berit Brogaard

Berit Brogaard is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Miami, where she runs the perception lab. Her specialities involve philosophy of mind, language and cognitive neuroscience, though she is perhaps best known for her work on synesthesia and savant syndrome. Her recent works include The Superhuman Mind, On Romantic Love, and Transient Truths.

• Brogaard, B., On Romantic Love, (London: Routledge, 2018).
• Fisher, H., Anatomy of Love: A Natural History of Mating, Marriage, and Why We Stray, (New York: W.W. Norton, 1992).
• Buss, D., The Evolution of Desire: Strategies of Human Mating, (New York: Basic Books, 2016 [updated edition]).
• Aron, A., Aron, E., Love and the Expansion of Self: Understanding Attraction and Satisfaction, (Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 1997).
• Helen Fisher, Why We Love: The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love, (New York: Henry Holt, 2004).
• Baumeister, R. F., Vohs, K. D., Handbook of Self-Regulation: Research, Theory, and Applications, (New York: Guilford Press, 2004).
• DeWall, C. N., The Neuroscience of Love and Romantic Attachment, in Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2014.
• Fletcher, G., The New Science of Intimate Relationships, (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004).