Engelsk aflevering – Non-fiction.

Silje Bang
Skovsgaard

Analytical essay – How to fix a broken heart.

Summary (146 words)

In the Ted talk “How to Fix a Broken Heart” Guy Winch explores the pain that comes with
heartbreak. He does this through 2 of his patients Kathy and Miguel’s stories. Kathy is very sick
from cancer, but when she finally got cured, her love interest Rich rejects her, which shows how
hard it can be to heal emotionally. Winch also explains how a heartbreak trigger a response in the
brain, that looks like addiction. This “addiction” makes people fixate on memories of their exes. He
talks about how important it is to accept closure and fill the voids left by the breakup if the
individual wants to heal. At last, there is Miguel’s story, which shows how struggling with grief and
heartbreak can mess up your mental function and your social life. Winch also talks a bit about how
to deal and overcome a heartbreak.

Analytical essay (926 words)

In the TED talk “How to Fix a Broken Heart” written by Guy Winch, he talks about the importance
of feeling better after a breakup. He does this with his patient’s stories, which really makes us listen
as the audience. His patients have both gone through a bad breakup, and we are given useful tips on
how you can deal with this kind of pain. The way Winch talk and the way he makes people feel
through his caring attitude, makes what he is saying easier to understand. Winch knows it can be
really hard to heel after a breakup, and how therefore wants to help people get through the
heartbreak and over their pain. His overall talk is some sort of guide on how to get trough a tough
time, especially after a breakup.

Guy Winch is a psychologist and an author, which makes him seem very trustworthy. Through his
TED talk he draws his experiences in helping overcome a heartbreak. He engages the audience by
sharing stories from his patients, which makes his talk more relatable. One of his stories is a cancer
survivor called Kathy. After she got cured from cancer, she was desperate to find love again, and
she found her man. One day they were going to this fancy restaurant, and she though that he would
propose, but instead he broke up with her. After this story, Winch asks a very good question “Why
do the same coping mechanisms that get us through
all kinds of life challenges fail us so miserably when our heart gets broken?” (p. 1 l. 18-19). Why
did Kathy get over years of cancer treatment without any kind of grief, but her getting her heart
broken caused a lot of sadness. The same thing with Winch’s other patient, Miguel, who also
struggled with this constant grief. By adding these types of stories into his talk, Winch puts some
sense of connection and understanding into the audience’s head. It also makes us question how we
acts in a situation like Kathy and Miguel’s. Aside from the personal anecdotes he used, Wunch also
used humor and warmth to make a welcoming space, which help and makes it easier for the
audience to talk about the difficult topic of a heartbreak.

Guy Winch used a way of speaking that is very easy to understand, with a friendly tone to it and a
clear intention. He makes the TED talk feel like a normal talk with a friend, and he used a lot of
simple words and different stories that anyone can reflect them selves in. Wunch doesn’t haste
trough is words, and he instead talks slowly and gentle. This gives us as audience time to
understand what he is trying to say. He is also mixing emotion and facts together which makes a
good balance. Some examples of this could be “we know from studies of heartbroken people that
having a clear understanding of why the relationship ended is really important for our ability to
Engelsk aflevering – Non-fiction. Silje Bang
Skovsgaard

move on” (p. 1 l. 24-25) and “Your mind will try to tell you they were perfect. But they were not,
and neither was the relationship. And if you want to get over them, you have to remind yourself of
that, frequently.” (p. 2 l. 64-65). As we can see in these lines he helps people understand a
heartbreaks effect on their minds by using both logic and feeling. Winch also compares a heartbreak
to an addiction, which also helps us understand his whole point better, because people better
understand the difficulty in an addiction, and how hard it is to stop.

Winch’s intention with this talk is very clear, it is to guide and support people who is dealing with
heartbreak. He focuses a lot on the fact that missing a person you had close, can feel like an
addiction “Brain studies have shown that the withdrawal of romantic love activates the same
mechanisms in our brain that get activated when addicts are withdrawing from substances like
cocaine or opioids.” (p. 2 l. 35-38). His suggestion on how to deal with this kind of pain, is to
instead of thinking about the good things in the relationship, look at the things that didn’t work out.
He gives us an example with a hike up a mountain, that we remember as romantic, perfect, and how
great it made us feel. But as he says we must stop idealizing and instead remember the whole truth,
for example that the whole way down you got lost and argued and didn’t speak for several days. So,
instead of remembering all the good parts of the relationship, Winch says to think of alle the things
that didn’t work. He also says that people should do more things that makes them happy and think a
lot more about themselves. He believes that this is the way to feel better and move on in life.

Guy Winch TED talk “How to Fix a Broken Heart” gives us an understanding on how to get over a
heartbreak even though it seems impossible. He makes the audience want to listen by sharing stories
that people can relate to and reflect themselves in. The advice Winch gives, is giving people some
sort of hope and strength. Winch knows how hard is con be to heal a heartbreak both physically and
mentally, and he therefore offers an easy way to feel better. Winch’s talk overall helps people
dealing with their grief, and how they can get more confidence and kindness back in their lives.