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Le printemps (Spring, 1873), a painting by Pierre Auguste Cot.

Love is the feeling of liking somebody or something very much. People sometimes get married or go on a date when someone loves another.

Love is usually believed to have something to do with the chemical reactions in the brain.

Introduction[change | change source]

According to one of the young Pakistani philosopher Engr. Arshad Ali Azeemi, love is not something that is simply understandable.[source?] It is a feeling of the heart which one can only observe practically.

Forms of love[change | change source]

There are many kinds of love. There can be self-love, love towards a friend (such as platonic love), love in romance, towards family, toward God, or towards an object or idea.

Often love can be confused with other feelings. Being sexually or physically attracted is the feeling of lust. Lust and love may be thought of as different. Besides that, normal friendship can be distracted by love. Sometimes, love can be destroyed. When love is destroyed between a dating couple, they may break up with each other.

Love is based on respect, understanding, and being able to talk with each other.

First love[change | change source]

People describe the person that they first loved romantically as their "first love." For example, in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Romeo is Juliet's very first love. At that time, she was only 13. In Maria Edgeworth's book Belinda, Mr. Vincent says, "First loves are silly things."

Chemical basis[change | change source]

The biological model of sex is different from love because it is more like hunger or thirst. [1] Helen Fisher, an expert in the topic of love, divides love into three stages: lust, attraction, and attachment. Lust makes people like each other, attraction encourages people to focus on mating, and attachment helps people tolerate the spouse (or the child).

Lust is the passionate sexual desire that promotes mating. This usually lasts only a few weeks or months. Attraction is more for one person specially. Recent studies in neuroscience say that as people fall in love, the brain releases chemicals, including dopamine. These chemicals make people less hungry and sleepy, and also adds an intense feeling of excitement. Research shows that this stage normally lasts from one and a half to three years.[2]

Since these lust and attraction stages are both described as temporary, a third stage might describe long-term love. Attachment can be used to describe the bonding period that helps keep husband and wife together for many years. Attachment occurs in the longer term.

Love and health[change | change source]

Love has consequences for health and well-being. Joyful activities such as love activate areas in the brain responsible for emotion, attention, motivation and memory, and it may further lead to reduction of cortisol, which reduces stress.[3]

Related pages[change | change source]

Notes[change | change source]

  1. Lewis, Thomas; Amini F. & Lannon R. (2000). A general theory of love. Random House. ISBN 0-375-70922-3.
  2. Winston, Robert (2004). Human. Smithsonian Institution.
  3. Esch, Tobias; & Stefano, George B. (2005). Love Promotes Health. Neuroendocrinology Letters 26 (3): 264-267. PMID 15990734.

Other websites[change | change source]