The Incurable Romantic review: Frank Tallis and the many mysteries of love

The Incurable Romantic

Frank Tallis

Little, Brown, $32.99

Like Freud's famous case studies, this collection could be read as fiction. Frank Tallis, a practising psychiatrist and writer, takes us behind the many faces of love, with reflexive, detached compassion. In The Woman Who Wasn't There a young woman with what is broadly known as Delusional Disorder continually imagines her partner is having an affair. Obsessed with discovering evidence of infidelity, she demands to see his texts and emails, continually questioning him about where he is and why he is late home. In another, the eponymous romantic is convinced he has found the perfect partner and – eventually stalking her - refuses to accept it when she leaves him. Tallis also looks at transference and what can happen when the psychiatrist becomes too involved with the patient. Compelling, intriguing reading.