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Discovering Our Enigmatic Sense of Smell
William Morrow
October 2007
On Sale: October 9, 2007
288 pages
ISBN: 0060825375
EAN: 9780060825379
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
Shakespeare wrote that a rose by any other name would smell
as sweet. But if you cannot smell, does the rose lose its
sweetness? The first and definitive book on the psychology of smell,
The Scent of Desire traces the importance of smell in our
lives, from nourishment to procreation to our relationships
with the people closest to us and the world at large. Smell
was the very first sense to evolve and is located in the
same part of the brain that processes emotion, memory, and
motivation. To our ancestors, the sense of smell wasn't just
important, it was crucial to existence and it remains so
today. Our emotional, physical, even sexual lives are
profoundly shaped by both our reactions to and
interpretations of different smells. Why do some people like a certain smell and others hate it?
Is smell personal or cultural? How does smell affect our
choices and our daily lives? Rachel Herz explores these
questions and examines the role smell plays in our lives,
and how this most essential of senses is imperative to our
physical and emotional well-being. Herz investigates how our
sense of smell functions, examines what purpose it serves,
and shows how inextricably it is linked to our survival. She
introduces us to people who have lost their ability to smell
and shows how their experiences confirm this sense's
importance by illuminating the traumatic effect its loss has
on the quality of day-to-day living. Herz illustrates how
profoundly scent and the sense of smell affect our daily
lives with numerous examples and personal accounts based on
her years of research. The wonders of our sense of smell are all explored in a
compelling and engaging manner, from emotions and memory to
aromatherapy and pheromones. For anyone who has ever
wondered about human nature or been curious about the
secrets of both the body and the mind, The Scent of Desire
is a fascinating, down-to-earth tour of the psychology and
biology of our most neglected sense, the sense of smell.
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