Stephen A. Mitchell

Can Love Last?

The Fate of Romance over Time

"A beautiful and brilliant reexamination of love and its perils."—Barbara Fisher, Boston Globe

Common wisdom has it that love is fragile, but leading psychoanalyst Stephen A. Mitchell argues that romance doesn't actually diminish in long-term relationships—it becomes increasingly dangerous. What we regard as the transience of love is really risk management. Mitchell shows that love can endure, if only we become aware of our self-destructive efforts to protect ourselves from its risks.

"Those who read this book will love more wisely because of it."—Andrew Solomon, author of The Noonday Demon

"[A] work on romance that is rich and multi-layered."—Publishers Weekly

"Cheerful, open, and humane—you'd definitely have wanted him as your analyst."—Judith Shulevitz, New York Times Book Review

"[T]houghtful, compassionate, and profoundly optimistic."—JoAnn Gutin, Salon.com


Stephen A. Mitchell died in 2000 at the pinnacle of his career as a theorist and clinician. He is the author of Freud and Beyond.
Can Love Last? book jacket


February 2003 / paperback / ISBN 0-393-32373-0 / 6" x 8" / 224 pages / Psychology/Philosophy
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