The Scent of Desire

The Scent of Desire
Rachel Herz
William Morrow
ISBN: 978-0-06-082537-9
Non-Fiction, Psychology
Reviewed by Ernest Dempsey

The sense of smell has been the least investigated of our perceptual modalities. That is mainly because we have used to take our sense of smell for granted and lack the knowledge of its pivotal importance for a fuller and more enjoyable life. Now we have this seminal work of Dr. Rachel Herz on olfaction titled The Scent of Desire (HarperCollins, New York, 2007), a book that encompasses many different aspects of the sense of smell and its role in our lives.
The Scent of Desire explores the biological basis of our olfaction, describes its evolution, and explains how the presence or absence of the ability to smell affects our quality of life. Writing in an interesting, easily comprehensible and non-academic style, Dr. Herz tells her readers amazing facts and discoveries about smell, its types, mechanism of olfactory, perception, its relation to human health and sexuality, and many more enthralling pieces of information about olfaction.
Throughout her book, Dr. Herz uses some of the most interesting and revealing accounts real life cases that involved the sense of smell as the key feature. The Scent of Desire also conveys an update on the latest technologies that are being developed, centering on smell as the primary component. It is a book for academicians as well as for the general reader.
The basic idea of the author’s work is to unravel the connection between scent, emotion, and memory while relying on evolutionary evidences. Thus she achieves her aim by demonstrating that our sense of smell is essential to our humanity. After reading The Scent of Desire one is unlikely to let the aromas in our daily life slip by unappreciated.