Lydia Denworth - Friendship

Friendship is universal and elementary, since a friend is nothing more than a consciously chosen family member. But what makes the bond of friendship indispensable? How does it affect our body and mind?

Lydia Denworth introduces her readers to biological, psychological and evolutionary research, and they come to the realization that the history of friendship can be traced back to the primitive communities of the African savannahs, and that the strong need for connection can even be discovered in primates. It insightfully weaves together past and present, practical biology and neurology to show how we behave in our friendships as children, adults, and seniors; through which processes our healthy social bonds are formed and maintained; and how social media is changing friendship in our age.
The combination of fascinating scientific information, personal stories, and a comprehensive evolutionary perspective reveals the fundamental role that cooperation and social connection play in the development of human (and non-human) societies.

"We love company. In a scientific sense, this does not mean that we party endlessly and play wild pranks; it simply means that we are social creatures. Humans have always lived in groups, and then as these groups became larger and more complex over time, we had to to figure out how to find our place in them, how to get along well with each other. (...) In other words, we had to make friends."

Lydia Denworth is a science journalist, editor of Scientific American, and author of the Brain Waves blog for Psychology Today. He publishes in The Atlantic, Newsweek, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Time and Spectrum, among others.