The Science of Love

A summary from I get a kick out of you from the Economist.

Researchers took brain scans of students who described themselves as 'madly in love'.
Interestingly,

the brain areas active in love are different from areas activated in other emotional states, such as fear or anger. Parts of the brain that are love-bitten include the the one responsible for gut feelings,.... which generate the euphoria induced by drugs such as cocaine.

Love, it seems, can literally be an addiction.

In Helen Fisher's book Why We Love: The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love there are three types or love:

1. Lust
In the aftermath of lustful sex, there are increases in chemicals such as endogenous opioids, the body's natural equivilant of heroin.
2. Attraction
A more refined version of lust, it allows people to home in on a particular mate.

This state is characterized by feelings of exhilaration, and intrusive, obsessive thoughts... this mental state might share neurochemical characteristics with the manic stage of manic depression, or obsessive compulsive disorder.

This suggests that anti-depressants jeapordise the ability to fall in love, since Prozac might be staving off romantic feelings.
3. Attachment
Characterised by calm, social comfort and emotional union.

Fisher says that since these three types are independant, it's possible to love more than one person at once. And since promiscuity leads to a bigger stake in the gene-pool, a rather pessimistic future exists for their interplay.

It seems to me, that if you're going to ban cocaine, than to be consistant people who are 'madly in love' are just as destructive....

Comments

[tc]

But the major problem is not with those who have cocaine, but with those who want but cannot have it, at least by their own economic means - hence drug related crime etc etc. But i agree that the same is true of love, and Fitzgerald writes alot about men glimsping love in a higher economic strata to their own, Gatsby and Daisy, or Dick Diver and Nicole in Tender is the Night. In both cases the men are hooked, and are forced into seemingly immoral action in order to feed their 'addiction', and in both cases, yes, the consequences are destructive.

[wyska]

While I have the highest regard for the work of Helen Fisher, I feel I must point out her glaring omission. There are in fact four types of love.

4)Puppy

Hope that sets the record straight.

[AJE]

"Intoxicated romantic"
&tc,
couldn't agree more...

but when you say the "major problem is not with those who have cocaine, but with those who want but cannot have it"
is this like "i have a drink problem - i haven't got a drink"!

as watchers of Question Time know: heroin is not a dangerous drug....

[SL]

...but curry powder is...

[tc]

Yes, AJE, it is in a way. But to solve that problem they cannot just go to the bar and order another pint. And if the purchasing of such a drug is beyond their financial means, they may well break the law to get it, or someones face.

On question time last night (25th FEB) Christopher Hitchens (Mail on Sunday journalist) described Cannabis as "one of the most danderous chemicals known to man". I wonder if he is familiar with arsenic.

[tc]

...and when i say danderous, i in fact mean dangerous.

But WYSKA, what about:

5) Forbidden?

[DOC DURAND]

From the Who's Who in America Discoverer of the New Higher Science of Love, Dr. C. Eric Williams-Durand, Ph.D...Actually, what you're discussing isn't Real Love, Rape produces these same effects, Real Love is an all-encompassing phenomena..Everyting Else "Costs You More Than You Get Out of It", the rest is melancholy/pretense (as the 90% Infidelity Rate,confirmed by 60% Divorce, reproves).Study the courses and live within Real Love to ensure that those opposing you oppose themselves and inverted........The Book is "{The Scientific Version Of} The Book of John" (Only $22 + $5 S&H from Cherubiumpress@Lycos.com; or USRecovery@gmail.com-----Credit Card Orders can be made at 925-695-6507---Leave Name, Credit Card Number, Expiration Date, Number of Books Wanted, and Shipping Address)----Contains Materials from the New Higher Science of Love (Childhood, Adulthood, Parenthood, Love, Beauty, Sanity, Addiction, Every Major Religion, Every Government Office, Absolute /I.Q./, etc.) in the Appendix....