Lannon, Richard

PERSONAL:

Married; children: two.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Greenbrae, CA. Office—350 Parnassus Ave., Ste. 909, San Francisco, CA 94117; and University of San Francisco School of Medicine, P.O. Box 0984, San Francisco, CA 94143-0984.

CAREER:

University of San Francisco School of Medicine, San Francisco, CA, associate clinical professor of psychiatry and founder of Affective Disorders Program.

WRITINGS:

(With Thomas Lewis and Fari Amini) The Heart's Castle: A General Theory of Love, Random House (New York, NY), 2000.

SIDELIGHTS:

Richard Lannon and coauthors Fari Amini and Thomas Lewis probe the science of human intimacy in their book The Heart's Castle: A General Theory of Love. The three collaborators, all psychiatrists, draw on current research to prove that far from being a self-contained unit, the human brain is meant to link up with other minds. They state that modern society ignores some basic laws of human emotions, and in so doing, puts humanity at risk. "In elegant prose that keeps the dry scientific jargon to a blessed minimum," the authors argue that "we need a culture attuned to the ways of the heart," reported Clarissa Cruz in Entertainment Weekly. A Publishers Weekly reviewer found the authors' claim that interpersonal relationships are more important than any other facet of life to be "powerful" and rated the book overall as a "stimulating work."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Entertainment Weekly, February 11, 2000, Clarissa Cruz, review of The Heart's Castle: A General Theory of Love, p. 66.

New York Times Book Review, February 27, 2000, Liesl Schillinger, review of The Heart's Castle, p. 11.

Publishers Weekly, January 10, 2000, review of The Heart's Castle, p. 51.