Dorothy Tennov
Dorothy Tennov | |
|---|---|
| Born | Dorothy J. Tennow August 29, 1928 |
| Died | February 3, 2007 Harbeson, Delaware, U.S. |
| Education | Brooklyn College (BA, 1950) University of Connecticut (MA, 1954) University of Connecticut (PhD, 1964) |
| Known for | Limerence |
| Spouse | Howard S. Hoffman |
| Children | 3 |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | |
| Institutions | University of Bridgeport |
| Thesis | Performance on two-choice, non-spatial discrimination learning problems by nursery school children of normal IQ (1965) |
Dorothy Tennov (born Dorothy J. Tennow;[1] August 29, 1928 – February 3, 2007) was an American psychologist who invented the term "limerence".[2] Her 1979 book, Love and Limerence: The Experience of Being in Love, has been called the seminal work on romantic love (also called "being in love", or passionate love in psychology) and credited as largely marking the start of data collection on the phenomenon.[3][4][5]
Early life and education
Tennov was born in Montgomery County, Alabama.[6] She received her BA from Brooklyn College in 1950,[6][7] then did postgraduate education at the University of Connecticut, where she received her MA in 1950 and PhD in 1964.[7][8][note 1]
Career
Tennov was a professor of psychology at the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut for twenty years.[6] Her professional interest in romantic love began in the 1960s, when two young men told her that breakups had driven them to alcoholism and losing a semester at university, respectively.[9][10] In her studies, Tennov administered questionnaires, collected diaries and other personal accounts, and interviewed over 500 people on the topic of love.[4][11][12]
In 1976, Tennov traveled to Paris, where she interviewed the French novelist and essayist Simone de Beauvoir for a PBS television station, WNED-TV.[13][14][15] It was on the flight home from this interview that she is said to have discovered that limerence is not a universal human experience, finding that her longtime friend Helen Payne was unfamiliar with it. This is when she decided to invent a new term ("limerence").[16]
In addition to publishing Love and Limerence (1979), Tennov made a name for herself as a critic of psychotherapy.[17][18] She commented in 1976 that narcissism was becoming a common diagnosis at the time, because therapists seldom saw clients who had never been to therapy before. According to Tennov, "The people who go are a relatively small group who become therapy junkies."[19]
In 1986, Tennov left her post at the University of Bridgeport to become an independent researcher.[9][15] She moved to Millsboro, Delaware, in 1987,[7] where she lectured at a local senior learning academy and volunteered at a nursing home.[9][6] Near the end of her life, she was working on a play, and a book about the public and scientific reactions to the concept of limerence.[14]
Personal life
Tennov grew up in New York City.[7] She was married in 1952 to the psychologist Howard S. Hoffman, and they had three sons together,[1][6][20] but they later divorced.[10] Their son Randall died of leukemia in 1993.[6][20] Tennov was a feminist, enjoyed classical music, gardening, and playing piano (having owned a Steinway),[10][6][7] and had a small white dog "with an ear-splitting bark".[7] She states in her collected works that she is "the victim of a disorder that adversely influences social interactions" and that she endured job discrimination and sexism against her, despite ending up as a tenured professor.[7] She died in 2007 in Harbeson, Delaware, at the age of 78.[6]
Publications
Tennov published several nonfiction books, articles in scientific and educational journals, scientific book reviews, presentations at scientific meetings, essays on aspects of women's social conditions, and a prize-winning play about life in a nursing home.[6][14]
- Psychotherapy: The Hazardous Cure; Abelard-Schuman; 1975 (ISBN 978-0200040280)
- Super Self: A Woman's Guide to Self-management; Funk & Wagnalls; 1977 (978-0308102736)
- Love and Limerence; Scarborough House; 1979 (ISBN 0-8128-6286-4)
- Love and Limerence: The Experience of Being in Love; Scarborough House; 1999 (ISBN 978-0-8128-6286-7)
- A Scientist Looks at Romantic Love and Calls It "Limerence": The Collected Works of Dorothy Tennov; The Great American Publishing Society; 2005[21]
Notes
- ^ Dorothy Tennov's obituary states that she received her PhD from the University of Bridgeport; however, she has stated in her collected works that her PhD is from the University of Connecticut, and she is listed in their commencement program (under her married name). The obituary appears to be incorrect.
References
- ^ a b "NYC Marriage Index – Manhattan 1952". Internet Archive. 1952. p. 1619. Retrieved July 18, 2025.
- ^ McCracken, Amanda (January 27, 2024). "Is It a Crush or Have You Fallen Into Limerence?". The New York Times. Retrieved September 16, 2024.
- ^ Bode, Adam; Kushnick, Geoff (April 11, 2021). "Proximate and Ultimate Perspectives on Romantic Love". Frontiers in Psychology. 12 573123. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.573123. PMC 8074860. PMID 33912094.: "Despite [the] attempts to define and describe romantic love, no single term or definition has been universally adopted in the literature. The psychological literature often uses the terms 'romantic love,' 'love,' and 'passionate love' [...]. Seminal work called it 'limerence' (Tennov, 1979). The biological literature generally uses the term 'romantic love' [...] or being 'in love' [...]. In this review, what we term 'romantic love' encompasses all of these definitions, descriptions, and terms."
- ^ a b Fisher 2016, p. 20: Data collection largely began with the now classic dissection of this madness, found in Love and Limerence, by Dorothy Tennov. Tennov devised approximately two hundred statements about romantic love and asked four hundred men and women at and around the University of Bridgeport, Connecticut, to respond with "true" or "false" reactions. Hundreds of additional individuals answered subsequent versions of her questionnaire. From their responses, as well as their diaries and other personal accounts, Tennov identified a constellation of characteristics common to this condition of "being in love," a state she called "limerence."
- ^ Tennov 2005, p. 11: "Love and Limerence is widely cited in the psychological literature as a classic in the scientific study of romantic attraction."
- ^ a b c d e f g h i "Obituary, Visitation & Funeral Information | Dorothy Tennov". ParsellFuneralHomes.com. Archived from the original on July 18, 2025. Retrieved July 18, 2025.
- ^ a b c d e f g Tennov 2005, p. 12
- ^ "1964 June 14". Commencement Programs. University of Connecticut. June 14, 1964.
- ^ a b c Brady, James (February 13, 1990). "Lovesickness: A Chronic Condition" (web). The Washington Post. Archived from the original on August 27, 2017. Retrieved May 24, 2024.
- ^ a b c Reed, Roy (September 16, 1977). "Love and Limerence". The New York Times. Retrieved September 16, 2024.
- ^ Tennov 1999, p. 8
- ^ Hatfield 1988, p. 197: "Tennov (1979) interviewed more than five hundred passionate lovers. Almost all lovers took it for granted that passionate love (which Tennov labels 'limerence') is a bittersweet experience."
- ^ "Woman; Simone de Beauvoir: A Conversation with Dorothy Tennov". American Archive of Public Broadcasting. Archived from the original on July 16, 2025. Retrieved July 16, 2025.
- ^ a b c Tennov 2005, p. 11
- ^ a b Tennov 1999, p. 13
- ^ Tennov 1999, pp. 13–16
- ^ Tennov, Dorothy (1976). Psychotherapy: the hazardous cure. Garden City, N.Y: Anchor Press. ISBN 978-0-385-11657-2.
- ^ Bellamy 2025, p. 1
- ^ TIME (September 20, 1976). "Behavior: Narcissus Redivivus". TIME. Retrieved July 16, 2025.
- ^ a b Powers, Alice S.; Leitner, Donald (May 2007). "Obituary: Howard S. Hoffman (1925–2006)". American Psychologist. 62 (4): 320. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.62.4.320. ISSN 1935-990X.
- ^ ""Dear Woman Who Has Given Me My Life Back...!"". gramps.org. Retrieved October 1, 2024.
Sources
- Fisher, Helen (2016). Anatomy of Love: A Natural History of Mating, Marriage, and Why We Stray (Completely Revised and Updated). W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-34974-0. Archived from the original on February 18, 2024. Retrieved February 18, 2024.
- Bellamy, Tom (April 8, 2025). Smitten: Romantic obsession, the neuroscience of limerence, and how to make love last. Watkins Media Limited. ISBN 978-1-78678-915-0.
- (1999). Love and Limerence: the Experience of Being in Love. Scarborough House. ISBN 978-0-8128-6286-7. Archived from the original on March 27, 2023. Retrieved March 12, 2011.
- Hatfield, Elaine (1988). "Passionate and Companionate Love". In Sternberg, Robert (ed.). The Psychology of Love. Yale University Press. pp. 191–217. ISBN 9780300045895. Archived from the original on May 25, 2024. Retrieved May 16, 2024.
- (2005). A Scientist Looks at Romantic Love and Calls It "Limerence": The Collected Works of Dorothy Tennov. Greenwich, Ct.: The Great American Publishing Society.
External links
Quotations related to Dorothy Tennov at Wikiquote