Nov. 4, 2024: “Why We Love,” a tribute to Dr. Helen Fisher, a scholar and a friend
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Lovestruck: What Would Helen Fisher Do?
February 14, 2023 — WoMed co-hosts Danielle Maltby and Jackie CamardoIt’s celebrate Valentine's Day with sex scientist and one of Match.com’s Chief Scientific Advisors, Dr. Helen Fisher, to discuss personality styles and dating trends. What's your style?
Monday Morning Magic from Inkandescent® PR + Publishing Co. — It is with a sorrowful heart that I share that our friend, brilliant scholar, and down-to-earth badass, Dr. Helen Fisher, died peacefully at her New York City home on August 17th, 2024. The cause was endometrial cancer. Despite growing weak in her final weeks in hospice care, Helen completed her manuscript for a book focused on her personality research, Thinking Four Ways: How to Connect With Anyone Using Neuroscience. She submitted it five days before her death. It will be published in the US by Alfred A. Knopf and in more than a dozen foreign editions.
One of America’s most prominent anthropologists and the author of six internationally best-selling books on the science of romantic love, attachment, adultery, divorce, and the evolution and future of human family life. She spent her life investigating the biological basis of personality and how to use brain science to build teams, spark innovation, lead more effectively, and “win friends and influence people” at work, love, and life. Click here to read her obituary in the New York Times.
I have been writing about Dr. Helen for years. She was the keynote speaker at the World Future Society Conference in 2008 when I was publicist for an international futurist think tank called Social)Technologies. Her speech was riveting, and I knew I needed to interview her. At the time, she was writing Why Him? Why Her?: . When I asked if she’d be open to talking, she repeatedly said she was too swamped to take the time. I can be persistent. Finally, in the fall of 2010, she granted me an audience. I traveled to her apartment overlooking the Frick Collection art gallery in Manhattan, and as we sat in her kitchen sipping black coffee, she shared the story of her journey. In the years following, I kept up with this truly amazing woman, watching as she spoke around the world, was featured in top-tier publications and TV talk shows. I was also intrigued by the evolution of her relationship with Match.com, which hired her to help them answer an age-old question: why do you fall in love with one person rather than another? Based on her research, she penned the questionnaire for Chemistry.com.
If you are curious about your anatomy of love, click here to take Dr. Helen’s love personality test.
Here’s my favorite bit of advice from her book Why We Love: The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love: “Commit. Listen actively to your partner. Ask questions. Give answers. Appreciate. Stay attractive. Keep growing intellectually. Include her. Give him privacy. Be honest and trustworthy. Tell your mate what you need. Accept his/her shortcomings. Mind your manners. Exercise your sense of humor. Respect him. Respect her. Compromise. Argue constructively. Never threaten to depart. Forget the past. Say no to adultery. Don’t assume the relationship will last forever; build it one day at a time. And never give up.”
Godspeed, dear Dr. Helen.Click here to read more about Dr. Helen, and other love gurus, in the Fall 2024 issue Love Issue of BeInkandescent Health & Wellness magazine.
Until next Monday: May you find true love, first with yourself, and then with the match of your dreams. — Hope Katz Gibbs, founder and president, Inkandescent.us
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