Love?		September 13, 2009, 7:47PM
	by: baroque topic: Various bookmark this article view bookmarked articles go to archives
Love has often been universally misunderstood. A pivotal reason for this is the vague definition that most people attach to the word. Many people even create their own definition in order to suit a specific situation as well as a specific emotion that's felt. In fact, hasty generalizations don't even apply to how people view love. Philosophers and psychologists alike have been attempting to understand and portray love to its barest foundations, as well as artists, musicians, poets, and even authors. As a result, many theories, pictures, songs, poems, and stories have emerged from the chaos that is love. Many of these avenues of expression depict viewpoints that many people agree with. Adversely, many perverse love expressions are ridiculed. With a broad spectrum of personal views, love is potentially the most confused concept in the English language. There is a vast plethora of theories involving love. According to psychologist Zick Rubin, love is made of three elements: attachment, caring, and intimacy. Rubin defines attachment as the need to be cared for and to be with the other person, caring is valuing the other person's happiness and needs as much as your own, and intimacy is sharing private thoughts, feelings, and desires with the other person. Using this basis of thought, Rubin developed a question set for “liking” and “loving” that was administered to 198 undergraduate students in order to single out 13 specific questions in each category for a test. These questions were used to define the complexity of love in people who take the test. Psychologist Elaine Hatfield's theory, love is made of two types: compassionate love and passionate love. Compassionate love is comprised of mutual respect, trust, and affection. Passionate love deals with the physical aspect involving intense feelings and sexual attraction. Building off the compassionate/passionate love idea is the Triangular Theory of Love. Psychologist Robert Sternberg suggested that there are three components to love: intimacy, passion, and commitment. However, unlike Rubin and Hatfield, Sternberg twisted his theory up by stating that each of his components could be mixed together. To illustrate, intimacy and commitment formed a compassionate love, while passion and intimacy formed passionate love. Sternberg also believed that all three components could be combined at once to form consummate love. This final form of love is not only the strongest, but also the rarest. To conclude, the final type of a love descriptor is from a book titled “The Colors of Love” by John Lee. In the book, Lee hypothesized that love is akin to the primary and secondary colors. Instead of colors though, there are styles of love: Eros, Ludos, and Storge. Eros is loving an ideal person, Ludos is love as a game, and Storge is love is a friendship. Of course, each of those, when combined with another, forms a secondary style of love. Mania (Eros + Ludos) is an obsessive love, Pragma (Ludos + Storge) is a realistic and practical love, while Agape (Eros + Storge) is a selfless love. Many other prevalent theories describe love; some theories are practical while others aren't. Despite the psychological viewpoint on love, is it possible that every moment of love you've ever experienced is based on a combination of two chemicals in your brain? Scientists have been studying prairie voles, one of only 3% of species that appear to be monogamous. The uniqueness of the prairie vole, apart from their monogamy, is that they have a very closely related genetic make up as the montane vole, over 99%. The montane vole, however, is not monogamous. During sex, the prairie vole releases two chemicals called vasopressin and oxytocin. The montane vole doesn't release these two chemicals. In fact, the montane vole, even when injected with vasopressin and oxytocin, still show signs of one-night-stand sex proving that there are no receptors in a montane vole's brain. The question still remains whether or not a human brain works the same as a vole's brain. The interaction between vasopressin and oxytocin in a human's brain is still not fully understood. Dopamine is excreted to excite a person when they think about someone they love followed by serotonin to calm people down in order to trust. Once trust has begun, the oxytocin kicks in and takes effect. The oxytocin creates a feeling of connection to the person you're with. Finally, vasopressin is released. Vasopressin has the effect of tying the emotions you have to memories. By combining these chemicals in different quantities, among other chemicals in the body such as, but not limited to, phenyl ethylamine, and norepinephrine, different behavioral patterns come into focus. Although there are apparent fall outs and anomalies to each of these descriptions, the true basis for love has not yet been fully understood. Regardless of the facts, there will always be romantics out there who will be steadfast in their beliefs about love, even if scientists pin it down to a particular chemical reaction. People will still marvel at the portrayals of love displayed by artists, musicians, poets, and even authors. Expressions of love will forever hold a place in the hearts of many individuals.

baroque

Ick. The facts are there, I just hate the placement and appearance. I wish I hadn't rushed it. Oh well, I had expectant people. ------ [quote]I want you to go crazy telling me how much you love me.[/quote] September 14, 2009, 6:48PM

jayna.x

I once read somewhere "Love is an action. If you act with love upon another, then sooner or later, you will eventually start to feel something more for that person." I dunno. i thought of that after reading this. ------ ɐuʎɐɾ September 14, 2009, 11:34PM

Solstafir

well i think this was quite good. it doesnt offer anything seriously apposing or controversial though. it seems as if its a very logical and straightforward approach to describing human attraction. why people get with each other. something that im interested in is the whole idea of consummate love. it is said to be the rarest and this is possibly not because its so much more special than all the other kinds of loves but simply because of the nature of consummate love. what i want to know is why they used the word rare. it will turn it into a prize to be sought after the goal that might be hard to reach. most people might never experience a love that consumes them wholly and if they did i doubt it would ever lead to true contentment unless they could have this person and im assuming that if it is passionate it would be quite hot and cold as relationships go and be difficult to maintain commitment. mankind will always have stories and legends about this wonderful consummate love that is rare and wonderful. but it feels like a fantasy. its a rare dynamic seldom achieved and im fairly sure that alot of people are much like some of the voles unable to commit and unable to hold a dynamic relationship with someone. man kind will always have its stories but i feel science will always hold some of the right answers and i think your essay here beautifully illustrates the best theories of love. the question id be asking is, does it matter which kind of love you have and which one is most beneficial. kinda like asking if a medication is right for you i suppose ------ amber streams from Sol are not unlike the waves of the sea nor the endless horizon of ice September 15, 2009, 7:21PM

DXMisthedevil

very interesting i personally found love as the most powerful motivator for anything... all form of art-music poetry, literature, drawing, painting, whatever... it can change your actions and even the way you think, make you willing to die for another very strange phenomenon this thing called love September 16, 2009, 2:46AM

DXMisthedevil

i suggest reading up on what the Greeks called the four loves storge=affection philia=friendship eros="being in love" agape=charity just a thought September 16, 2009, 2:51AM

trigger.happy.jack

Love can suck my dick. ------ Le sang colle autant de fois que tu y vas. Délivre-toi de ce poids avec tes doigts. Tu ne t'arrêteras pas. Telle est cette loi, je la connais. C'est celle que tu bois et c'est celle qui te noie. Pour la dernière fois. September 17, 2009, 7:09AM

Spyrea

Very mature, Trigger, and also quite sad. I thought it was beautiful, meaningful, and it really helped me put things into perspective. I'm currently in a relationship with a boy named Adam who happens to be a marine. The time apart is difficult, but managable, because I know how strong our feelings are towards eachother. There is trust, commitment, passion, faithfulness, all the makings of what I would like to consider a real love, an everlasting love, but only time will tell. He's always quoting "time apart makes the heart grow fonder," and I can't even attempt to explain how true that is. Every day gets a little bit easier, every day it feels like we grow closer rather than farther apart. Nyghh..rambling now. Excellent work. Really looking forward to reading more from you. Don't let us down. ------ ["Girls don't play World of Warcraft, they play Hello Kitty Island Adventure."] September 17, 2009, 10:10AM

Satanic__Maggot

I agree. The essay was meaningful and trigger.happy.jack is a douchesack who will never truly be happy; he will realize this when he's about 30-40 and cant get any 20year olds to sleep with him. Then he's all alone... ------ And if we Loose we're going straight to Hell. September 17, 2009, 3:55PM

Code

Or the guy is not a douche bag and just hasn't had much luck when it comes to love which can leave people quite disillusioned and bitter sometimes. How about not jumping to conclusions and randomly insulting people you don't know, maggot? ------ When I say hip. You say bony projection of the femur which is known as the greater trochanter, and the overlying muscle and fat. September 17, 2009, 4:09PM

ImAWhat Article Editor

As opposed to randomly insulting people you don't know without jumping to conclusions... Juri.... =/ ------ All I know is ball, and good...and rape. September 18, 2009, 4:42AM

pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 next

Add Signature?