philosophy on being lovesick & philosophy of children/pedagogy

Hmmm...well some people might object to my calling them philosophers, but two thinkers come to mind on the lovesick issue:

Robert Burton in The Anatomy of Melancholy

And Emile Chartier, who wrote under the name Alain, might also have some helpful insights if you are looking to get out of the dumps. He wrote for some periodicals, and a helpful English translation of a collection of some of his short articles was released in 1989, under the title Alain on Happiness. Some of the articles seem trite, but read together they are actually pretty impressive in their practicality and full of worthwhile advice.

I'm afraid I'm less helpful on the issue of child-rearing. Maybe some of John Dewey's work, but I'm skeptical that they would actually be much help.

Hi art,

There's a fine line between psychology and philosophy, but it's the former that zero's in on how to cope with being human.

A good book with plenty of underlying philosophy, but written by a practicing psychologist is Care of the Soul, by Thomas Moore.

Oh, and just to clarify, the book isn't written from a religious perspective. The title is a poetic translation of the word psychotherapy.

See:
http://www.naturalchild.org/peter_cook/childrearing.html

also, the movement, No Child Left Indoors, is getting a lot of attention.