The True Nature of Love
As February 14th is upon us once more, Valentine’s Day starts weighing on our minds. This day is meant as a celebration of love and a reminder of the importance of our possible significant others. However one might pose the question: What is love? And the answer seems to always be subject to discussion.
Humanity appears to be interlinked with the concept of emotion, predominantly love and hatred. In fact, it is not uncommon to regard someone who is particularly cold and unfeeling as rather inhuman or reptilian. The source, nature and reason for love have been widely disputed topics for centuries. Everyone, from Greek Philosophers to religious leaders, to Hollywood film stars have had their say. Then of course, there is the view posed by hard science, which is worth considering.
Love can better be described as an infatuation, a verbally inexplicable allure that transcends rationality, encompassing the whole of a person and his or her attributes. This, of course, is an idealised version of the truth. As with all emotions, evidence suggests that love is merely a summation of the effect of several chemical components that act within our body known as hormones. Studies show that the hormones involved in what we can loosely refer to as love, differ from one type to another.
Sexual desire is controlled for the most part by the so-called sex hormones such as testosterone and estrogen. However, many would argue that this does not even approximate the true meaning of love. Intensive studies on the subject are revealing the different roles of hormones that control other aspects of the overall feeling of falling in love. We find that dopamine produces feelings of bliss related to romantic attachments, whereas nor-epinephrine affects those characteristic feelings of love that give it intensity, involving a quickened heart rate and a jittery, nervous disposition.
As for those who say that love is blind, strong evidence has left this assertion in tatters. Studies performed by the Rutgers University indicate that the cocktail of chemicals required for the feeling of love to be induced, is released in response to certain pre-determined stimulations. Thus we find different mixtures of hormones for different forms of love in different relationships.
What all this evidence is pointing to is that love is in fact, nothing particularly transcendental. On the contrary, it is a series of scientifically explicable, if not obviously rational reactions. So though this Valentine’s Day, romantic poetry no doubt, shall flow from many pens, but what we should really be writing is; the chemicals you instil in me are making me react in a certain way. However, I’m not so sure whether it has the same ring as I love you. Perhaps it will catch on some day.
Daniel Cassar
