Eros

Here the god Eros himself explains what love is and how it works. Through three central figures, Ann Miller, Henry Phillips and Betsy Worthington, the book examines why people love in the ways they do, and why some find love while others never do. It sorts people into six character types, drawing on Søren Kierkegaard's distinction between authentic and unauthentic individuals and on Martin Heidegger's idea of the anonymous self. Each type is tied to one of five stages of love: infatuation, desire, love, true love and genuine love.

The author looks at the outside forces that get in the way. Rigid class castes can prevent love from taking root. Liberal politics that embrace relativism and socialism, feminist thinking that weakens the bond between men and women, and the institutions of marriage and family, and a preoccupation with sex and its sometimes morally corrupting results all receive attention as obstacles.

Bowman contends that love fails more often than it succeeds. He identifies jealousy, envy, lust, disloyalty, infidelity, circumstance and personal character as the usual causes.