This study guide will help you analyze Guy Winch’s TED talk “How to fix a broken heart”. In addition to help for your analysis, you can find a summary of the text and ideas for discussing it.
If you need help with Assignments 1-4 from the STX B exam on the 17th of August 2022, you can read our guide here.
Presentation of the text
Title: How to fix a broken heart (2018)
Sender: Guy Winch
Genre: TED Talk
Guy Winch is a licensed psychologist, author, and speaker on the topic of the science of emotional health. Some of his most popular books include Emotional First Aid: Practical Strategies for Treating, Failure, Rejection, Guilt, and Other Everyday Psychological Injuries (2013), How to Fix a Broken Heart (2018), and The Squeaky Wheel: Complaining the Right Way to Get Results, Improve Your Relationships, and Enhance Self-Esteem (2011), which have been translated into more than 20 languages. He has also delivered multiple TED Talks.
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Pathos
Throughout his talk, Winch appeals to pathos in different ways. Firstly, he presents two of his patients’ personal stories of their experience with heartbreak to engage his audience and appeal to their emotions. When presenting the two stories, Winch also occasionally uses humor such as when he explains that Kathy “was eager to resume her search for a husband as soon as her eyebrows grew back in. When you’re going on first dates in New York City, you need to be able to express a wide range of emotions”. This lightens a sad and heavy story and helps the audience remain engaged and empathize with Kathy. Another example of humor that also helps Winch engage his audience is when he says people often get stuck in a cycle of remembering the best parts about their past relationship after a breakup “like [they] were being held hostage by [their] own passive-aggressive Spotify playlist”.
