What is Love? Baby, don't hurt me...

This should have probably been the first entry, but I never really do things in the order that makes sense, and since I read an excerpt from my textbook ("Human Sexuality in a World of Diversity") I wanted to write about, I thought it would be appropriate to define love.

According to http://dictionary.reference.com/, Love has 22 (my favorite number!) definitions. My favorite include:

–verb (used with object)

16. to have a profoundly tender, passionate affection for (another person).

18. to need or require; benefit greatly from

 

I like that love is a need. Not a want. A NEED. It is necessary for survival the world. This is specifically proven in a scientific experiment by Harry Harlow with baby monkeys and the use of "wire" mothers or "cloth" mothers mothers. At first, both of the wire monkey and cloth monkey were given a face and a "breast" (ie. - hole for a bottle to stick through) but the cloth monkey was warmed and designed for comfort. The wire monkey was not looked at as anything but a source for food for the baby monkeys, but the cloth monkeys became an emotional attachment (ie. - love) for the baby monkeys. The cloth monkey babies grew more psychologically stable than the monkeys either without a wire monkey or with one demonstrated through toy robots "taking over the cage." This shows that the basic feeling of attachment and love are equated and necessary for sound psychological health. Check out this link if you'd like the full synopsis. It has also been scientifically proven that babies in orphanages that may not receive enough attention and physical touch can ultimately die from lack of love.

 

Anyways, all of this background information leads me to the excerpt from my Human Sexuality book that I read today. The excerpt is called "Watching New Love as it Sears the Brain" and the first sentence drew me in "New love can look for all the world like mental illness - a blend of mania, dementia, and obsession..." The article speaks about using fMRI (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) brain scans to locate the different areas of the brain that light up (when blood flows through them) when a college student is newly in love. It was proven that the area of the brain that lights up is the same area that fills with blood and the neurotransmitter dopamine when people (cocaine users, gamblers, or people playing computer games for small amounts of money) score or win a contest (I guess cocaine counts as a score rather than a win...?)

 

Love is completely irrational and it is not a simple reward, so luckily there is a lot more scientific stuff involved. Also interesting to note, the brain shifts as the relationship progresses. Couples that had been together longer had a more developed area of the brain focused in long-term committment - Definitely good news! But, these areas of the brain also causes certain effects when a break-up occurs. One patient who went through a break up described her body as suffereing from "withdrawal" symptoms - similar to those of breaking an addiction.

 

I find it absolutely fascinating that all of these effects come from a simple 4 letter word. It goes to show, those 22+ definitions of love are definitely necessary since love is the sum of a whole lot of parts - emotional, physical and mental.