"In freewheeling, philosophical, colloquial style, this wise and beautiful essay breathes new life into our thinking about love, ånd sexuality. Sam Keen wants us to regard eros as an impulse or energy that links us to the whole web of life rather than a strictly sexual-romantic thing. Keen constructs a profound meditation on the dynamics of loving."-Publishers Weekly "An outline of ån erotic developmental psychology [that) integrates insights on sex, spirituality, and social criticism in a genuinely pro- vocative way."-Library Journal "Keen's goal is to recover 'a healthy passion.. His method is to construct a 'life-map' that traces transformations of love through the course of a lifetime... The course he charts touches upon the 'philosophy of life' and psychological orientation characteristic of each stage, defines the barriers that must be overcome in order to progress to higher levels, and details the attitudes necessary for passage from one stage to the next.... The Passionate Life is a needed, well-written, and most engaging slap in the face of the "Playboy philosophy, its trivialization of the erotic, and its nearly exclusive emphasis on sexual proficiency as the definition of love." -Best Sellers Philosopher Sam Keen is the well-known author of such books as Apology for Wonder, To a Dancing God, and Beginnings Without End; with James Fowler, he co-authored Life-Maps. A teacher and lecturer, and a contributing editor to Psychology Today, Keen divides his time between California and Washington state.