Talking of love being an addiction, you might find the following interesting
The work of these scientists is not a new idea. Particularly Tuppy, Harley, and Glass have discussed these ideas at length.
The greeks have seven different words to describe love, but some of these scientists are just using the english version and merging these concepts all into the same word... Its frustrating and confusing.
If people were trained to use a different word for both
Short Term attachment Long Term attachment
I think there would be a lot less confusion about what an affair is. Right now we use "love" to describe the feeling in both cases... this results in people experiencing both the attachmetn of an affair and the attachment of a marrige to put them on the same level. This is as Phil McGraw says "a ridiculous comparison".. apples and oranges so to speak.
This further results in some straying spouses to think they have "fallen out of love" or to claim "I love you but I am not In Love with you"... and to dismiss the long term attachment as old, tired, and not worth keeping around.
There is finally a recognition near the end of the article for three kinds of love :
Lust Short Term attachment (my term) Long Term attachment (my term)
These concepts are covered in Tuppy, Glass, and Harley's work already... this is not new.
These scientists, particularly Fisher in this article is helping to imperically validate on a genetic level what Family Therapists such as Glass, Tuppy, and Harley have been saying for quite some time now...
Short Term Attachment can be dangerous and is not the same thing as Long Term Attachment...
Tuppy in particular has said outright the biggest problem with the human brain is in fact that it CAN hold a short term attachment (an affair) and a long term attachment( a marriage) at the same time. Once this is setup in the brain by the straying partner a dilemna ensues between the choise of the long term or the short term attachment.
Quote:
However, she does think that administering serotonin can help someone get over a bad love affair faster. She also suggests it is possible to trick the brain into feeling romantic love in a long-term relationship by doing novel things with your partner. Any arousing activity drives up the level of dopamine and can therefore trigger feelings of romance as a side effect. This is why holidays can rekindle passion. Romantics, of course, have always known that love is a special sort of chemistry. Scientists are now beginning to show how true this is.
Harley himself has advocated using medication to reduce the effects of withdrawal from an affair that is ending. Note I don't consider an affair OVER or ENDED until the withdrawal period is complete. If I had a dime for every post I have seen here titled "He's back" or "She's back" I would be a rich man.
The genetics research on these voles does help hard core scientists who dismiss psychology and imperical observation of human behavior as valid evidence. I am confident in the many years infidelity experts have put into researching this subject. These genetic results help confirm something Family Therapists have been saying for decades.
