Michel Odent
Free Association Books, £12.95, pp 130 
ISBN 1 85343 476 0
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Rating: ★★★
Michel Odent, who is perhaps best known for introducing birthing pools to obstetric wards, has written a slim but provocative book on the subject of love. Why write a scientific book about a subject best left to poets and songwriters? The answer, according to Odent, is because it's about time: “At a time when people are focusing on violence and the roots of violence, I am convinced that we can go a step further in our understanding . . . by turning the question on its head and looking instead at how the capacity to love develops.”
With flair and considerable originality, Odent then proceeds to meditate on the scientific aspects of love. Each chapter, just five or six pages long, illuminates a different aspect of what scientists have come to understand about human love. Because of the brevity of the material, parts of the book can seem superficial, speculative, or even whimsical—but it is never boring. Consider the startling challenge posed in one of the later chapters, wherein Odent invites readers to recast the history of civilisation from the perspective of a newborn infant. From a baby's viewpoint, a turning point in the history of humankind occurred about 3000 years ago when the modern nuclear family structure evolved, and with it cultural practices such as the substitution of mother's milk with wet nurses', animals', and eventually powdered milk. Meanwhile, civilisation perfected its skills to dominate nature and master the potential for aggression. As Odent sees it, the instinctive drive for aggression and domination has resulted in the withering of our capacity to love, and with it the neglect of love as subject for scientific inquiry.
As a pioneer used to thinking outside the box, Odent demonstrates familiarity with a formidable range of subjects, from ethnography to endocrinology. His meditations draw on a diverse literature, which includes esoteric references to the Journal of Near Death Studies, Tantric Buddhism, and even the BMJ. Drawing on our emerging understanding of the role of the hormone oxytocin, Odent weaves a coherent and plausible story about the interconnected and health promoting processes of childbirth, breast feeding, and sexual attraction. One of the central themes of his book is that our capacity to love is primed during intrauterine development and the moments immediately after birth.
There is food for thought here for scientists engaged in life course research. Whether or not you subscribe to the idea that intrauterine and early life environments are important for later health, the premise that love is critical for human survival is a lesson that none can ignore.