Romantic Love vs. Marriage: A Psychoanalytic Approach Keelin Lord
To illustrate why Americans feel the need to end a stabilized, less exotic partnership for a revived passionate one, the psychologists’ account that romantic love is an addiction that needs to be addressed.
The reason psychologists view this euphoric passion as an addiction is because of the effects shown on one’s body and mind. Romance causes such things as emotional and physical dependence, obsession, craving, personality change and loss of self control.
In a study done by scientists, Bartels and Zeki, brain scans of subjects in love were compared to subjects who had injected cocaine and narcotics containing opium.
The results determined that the same reward system, or caudate region of the brain, became active in both sets of individuals as well as heightened levels of dopamine (Fisher 182).
Furthermore, those who are love stricken show the same symptoms as drug addicts, such as tolerance while the need to see their beloved increases, withdrawal when the relationship ends, and relapse as memories are triggered long after the romance is over (Fisher 183).
