Kathleen O’Dwyer | Akateeminen Kirjakauppa

The Possibility of Love is an exploration of a concept close to the human heart. Grounded in the ordinary, everyday experiences of human living, the book provides an exploration of the diverse obstacles to the experience of love, the consequences of love’s absence, and the unquenchable desire for love which propels, influences and ultimately motivates much of human behaviour. The Possibility of Love poses the question: is love actually possible between human beings, or is it an ideal, a fantasy, an illusion, or a comforting aspiration which enables a palliative denial and distortion of the reality of human being? This expansive question is approached through an interdisciplinary analysis. The author addresses the question of love’s possibility as it is explored in a selection of literature from the disciplines of philosophy, psychoanalysis and poetry. The interdisciplinary nature of the study is based on the assertion of an interconnection between the three disciplines, and that this interconnection enables a unique and insightful exploration of the question of love’s possibility. Thus, the question is explored from diverse view-points, and also from different time-frames; convergences and divergences are noted and discussed, and conclusions are drawn from the ensuing findings. The book is essentially a philosophical analysis of an emotion that significantly impacts on human experience. It attests to the gradually increasing acknowledgement of the power of emotional experience in the search for knowledge, wisdom and truth. Thus, it is a uniquely honest exploration of human nature in contemporary times.