I received access to this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

If you are looking for exciting new swears to use, this is not the book for you - especially since researchers are apparently hesitant to use the *actual* swear words patients employ when writing studies, something that is slowly turning around (thank goodness).

If you are interested in how swearing helps you to withstand or alleviate pain, strengthens bonds between colleagues and teammates, or how it disparately affects men and women in social situations, though, then this *is* the book for you! I learned a lot here, and there was a bonus chapter on Tourette's syndrome that really opened my eyes to that particular condition and corrected some previous assumptions I had about its relationship to unprompted cursing.

Byrne writes very accessible prose, even when she is reporting on academic studies, and that made this title much more fun than it might otherwise have been. Next time someone scolds me about my occasionally sailor-esque vocabulary, I'm hoping to have a copy of this book on hand to chuck at them. Or I'll just swear.

I picked up this book because I honestly talk like a sailor. I say ‘fuck’ too much and it’s like a second language to me. I was raised in The South and we are taught ladies should not use foul language. Well I say, “Fuck that shit!” I loved this book because it had history and proof that swearing is good for you. I read this non fiction book in a few sittings and it was fun. To cut to the chase, this book was the shit!

SWEARING IS GOOD FOR YOU

An argument can be made that if you’ve read one good book on swearing–a serious one, mind, of the type that examines its place in language–you’ve read them all.

What will you learn from such a book? That swearing is based on subjects of social taboo. That it helps us cope with pain. That just like other higher order human functions, it isn’t specifically attributable to any portion of the brain, although there are specific kinds of swearing that’s attributable to the left and right hemispheres respectively. There will also interesting anecdotes such as how some individuals afflicted with aphasia nonetheless retain their ability to swear (which, if you think about it, is kind of funny).

Naturally, it’s to be expected that the author(s) of such a book will also include a fair bit of foul language with tongue firmly in cheek.

On that score, Swearing is Good for You checks all the boxes. Author Emma Byrne examines the link between swearing and cultural taboo, details all various experiments that demonstrate how swearing helps people cope with pain, and summarizes the relevant literature on the neuroscience of swearing (with appropriate anecdotes for good measure). And, yes, she does all this with the occasional invective thrown in as and where needed.

Yet Swearing is Good for You acquits itself as more than the usual book on foul language in its choice of other topics on which Byrne opts to elucidate. While departures from the usual formula, these serve to add nuance to our understanding of the socio-cultural-neurological factors that influence and/or affect the human practice of swearing.

For instance, an illuminating section on Tourette syndrome delves into the impulses that those with the condition must live with and does a good job of dispelling many popular stereotypes about Tourette’s and swearing.

There’s also an interesting chapter on swearing and socialization and how chimpanzees can also learn to swear, after a fashion.

The book also has a particularly compelling chapter on gender and swearing that dispels the myth that women swear less than men do (or ought to).

Byrne offers a thoughtful and well-researched perspective on these and similar topics in Swearing is Good for You. It’s certainly enough to make anyone appreciate that what may be an unsavory aspect of language can be deeply fascinating, too.

Excellent book on the power and utility of swearing. I gave swearing up for awhile when I thought "go away" and "nonsense" were as good as F-off and BS, but there is power in the swears.

Hell yeah! Finally some fucking proof to what my gut has been declaring for years. There is something exuberantly cathartic and empowering about releasing tension, frustration and any emotion with a string of some salty expletives! Thank you for making it official.

Swearing is Good for You was a great overview of the the dirty little words that we all use from time to time but don't talk about. Byrne provides a broad summary of the history, role, and purpose of swearing from fields as diverse as linguistics, social psychology, sociology, and evolutionary biology. Her use of swearing in the text as editorial or summary comments seemed a little too cute or for show and took away from her overall thesis that swearing evolved and is still used today for important reasons. Still an entertaining read on a topic that is rarely addressed.

Thank you to Netgalley and W. W. Norton & Company for an E-ARC of this novel.
I must say I didn't give this book much credit before I read it because 1) new author (always skeptical) and 2) the title seemed a little hard to believe. Emma Byrne does an excellent job on making a case for the science behind bad language. The history of swearing and how is benefits our health is quite incredible. Byrne states in her novel that "swearing has helped to develop the field of neurosciences through studies of emotions and the human brain". It is a fascinating book filled with great history, swears, and information. I would recommend this read, but only to adults. ;) I think a lot of Christians will turn away from the title, as might I have, but I have a degree in Social Sciences. I found it thought provoking and insightful from a scholarly point of view. Emma Byrne has created a book for English, Psych, Sociology majors that is a great introspect to the human behavior. I think mainstream readers will like it because not only is it funny, but her history of swearing as a language is quite fascinating.