Infatuation

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Infatuation, depicted in Pierre Auguste Cots painting from 1873: Spring

Infatuation is an intense feeling of affection . According to psychologists, it is accompanied by a narrowing of consciousness , which can lead to a misjudgment of the object of affection. The other person's mistakes can be overlooked or experienced as particularly positive attributes. Being in love is not a permanent state, it exists as a phase over a longer or shorter period of time, can wane and dissolve or turn into love . The feelings of being in love can be one-sided, so do not have to be reciprocated (see also: unrequited love ). A less intense form of falling in love is also known as crushing a person.

psychology

Physical desire: kiss as an expression of love. Loveparade, Berlin (1999)

In social psychology , being in love is viewed as a phenomenon of passionate love and is expressed by an intense desire for another person, which can be accompanied by physical symptoms . It usually goes hand in hand with longing .

The main reasons given for the process of falling in love are mutual sympathy and physical attractiveness . Aron wrote that it seems as if people are waiting for a person who is attractive to them and then doing something that they can interpret as “like the other person”. The similarity to or the frequency of interaction with another person can also be used as additional factors . These factors may play a role in the time before you fall in love, as they limit the number of "acceptable" people. Duck found that the most important predictor of romantic attraction was physical attractiveness, followed by one's resemblance to the other person. Duck assumed that the quality of the conversation could also be a possible predictor of romantic attraction, but this assumption could not be confirmed experimentally, neither in men nor in women. So it seems that physical attractiveness and resemblance are far more important than the content of conversations.

Being in love is particularly common in psychoanalysis (as so-called transference love ) and is used there as a therapeutic agent. Sigmund Freud had already observed that an above-average number of female patients fell in love with him, even though he was not an exceptionally good-looking man. At that time, he viewed transference love as a disruptive factor within the therapeutic setting, whereas today it is used intensively.

The bridge experiment

The feeling of being in love can be associated with mis attribution. In 1974 Donald Dutton and Arthur Aron carried out an experiment in this regard: an attractive woman was positioned on a swaying footbridge. This addressed men who were crossing the bridge. She asked the test subjects to help them with a research project and gave them their home phone number, stating that the test subjects could call them if they had any questions. The same woman then addressed men who had already crossed the bridge. Finally, the calls were evaluated. Significantly more men answered who were spoken to while they were walking across the unstable bridge than those who were spoken to after a subsequent break. The researchers assumed that the men found crossing the rickety bridge exciting and interpreted this fear as being in love. The experiment thus provided the first indication that being in love must also be a form of fear attachment.

Limerence

The term limerence was introduced in 1979 by Dorothy Tennov, a US professor of behavioral psychology, with her book Love and Limerence . The term describes an extreme state of being in love, which is already more than the famous "tingling in the stomach" and the behavior patterns associated with it. The state of limerence is characterized by a constant, almost obsessive thinking about the loved one, the longing hope for a return of the feelings, the constant fear of rejection, the fading out of negative attributes of the loved one, the focus of the senses on things and incidents that relate to them, as well as shyness and insecurity in their presence. Limerence turns into love when a relationship is successful; If the limerence remains one-sided and is not reciprocated, the condition subsides on its own. According to Tennov, the condition can last from a few months to several years.

Neurobiology

Given the complexity of emotions, scientists suspect that a variety of biochemical mechanisms may be involved in mood changes at the start of falling in love. The neurobiology of this condition has not yet been researched and the research results are difficult to interpret.

Changes in the body balance of neurotransmitters and neurohormones have been detected in lovers .

Dopamine

Due to the increased release of the messenger substance dopamine (the “reward neurotransmitter”), being in love is perceived by most people as an extraordinary feeling of happiness. Dopamine release in the brain of lovers could be documented graphically. The feeling of elation eases the idea of ​​getting involved in a monogamous sexual relationship and coping with responsibility for one's own family.

Serotonin

The neurotransmitter serotonin is considered a "happiness messenger". If there is a deficiency, anxiety and depression can result. According to Kast and Fischer, being in love goes hand in hand with low serotonin levels, which may seem paradoxical, since being in love causes feelings of happiness and, following logic, an extremely high serotonin level can be assumed. The Italian scientist Donatella Marazziti explains this apparent contradiction in the way that lovers are fixated on their object of being in love, similar to an obsessive-compulsive disorder . In patients with compulsions, too little serotonin is detected in the blood. Passionate infatuation and compulsive behavior seem to have a common factor with this messenger substance.

Neurotrophin

Research at the University of Pavia (2005) showed an increased level of the neurotrophin NGF in the blood of newly in love , although no increased levels were found after one year. Experts for neurotrophin research at the Ruhr University Bochum (2005) also came to the assumption that the neurotrophin values ​​change when you fall in love.

Neurotrophins ("nerve nutrients") are the body's own signaling substances / messenger substances that cause targeted connections between nerve cells and ensure the continuation of neuronal connections. They contribute to memory formation and play a major role in the construction and dismantling of new nerve networks. Scientists suspect that they are responsible for the typical euphoria at the beginning of a romance.

This could, for example, contribute to the fact that lovers sometimes find themselves in a state of insanity, allow themselves to be carried away to irrational actions and break down inhibitions .

Oxytocin

In lovers, increased levels of the hormone oxytocin (hormone for the "basis of trust", also "cuddle hormone") were detected. Social interactions in general and the development of close interpersonal relationships are subject to his influence, social inhibitions are lowered and trust is increased. It has an important meaning between sexual partners during sex , an essential meaning in the birth process and influences the behavior between mother and child.

testosterone

Research results from surveys in different cultures showed that women are looking for a man who is a caring father and loyal partner and at the same time has a high quality of his genes. From the point of view of the hormonal mode of action of testosterone , these are contradictory properties, as a high testosterone level tends to be a sign of strength and health, but makes a man aggressive and volatile.

Italian scientists discovered that the concentration of the male sex hormone testosterone in the blood of men in love decreases, while it increases in women in love. Eliminating disruptive differences between men and women could have the purpose of harmonious cooperation in order to ensure that offspring emerge from the connection, the scientists suspect. When repeated measurements were taken after a year or two years, the hormone levels in the test subjects returned to normal.

Partner choice

Animal studies at the Max Planck Institute for Immunobiology revealed, among other things, indications of a connection between the individual immune system of a living being and the choice of partner. With the sense of smell ( olfactory perception ), genetic individuality and diversity can be recorded and evaluated. This seems to be a conserved mechanism of evolution, which offers the offspring the best possible chance of survival by choosing the right partner.

For humans, this also means that the sense of smell is involved in whether and with whom they fall in love. In his famous sweaty T-shirt study in 1995, Claus Wedekind demonstrated that humans are also able, without being aware of it, to recognize another person's immune system through the odor of their own . In order for the offspring to have a strong immune system through inheritance, it is an advantage that both partners have very different immune systems. They should be as opposite (complementary) as possible so that their combination can cover a wide range in the child.

ethnology

With the Indonesian Macassars , being in love with all its physical side effects is seen as a typical phenomenon of youth, even as a disease. Those affected are convinced that this is why they urgently need to seek out a healer for therapy.

See also

literature

Web links

Wiktionary: In love  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
Wikiquote: Infatuation  - Quotes

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A. Aron, DG Dutton, EN Aron, A. Iverson: Experiences of falling in love. In: Journal of Social and Personal Relationships. 6, pp. 140-160 (1989).
  2. ↑ SW Duck: Meaningful relationships: Talking, sense, and relating . Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA 1994.
  3. ^ E. Aronson, T. Wilson, RM Akert: Social Psychology. 4th edition. Pearson Studium, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-8273-7084-1 .
  4. ^ Elliot Aronson , TD Wilson, RM Akert: Social Psychology . 6th edition. Pearson Studium, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-8273-7359-5 , pp. 148 f . ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  5. ↑ M. Hauser: When we love and are unfaithful . 4th edition. IVEB, Stuttgart 2015, ISBN 978-1-4948-9897-7 , pp. 73 .
  6. ^ Dorothy Tennov: Love and Limerence. The experience of being in love. Stein and Day, New York 1979, ISBN 0-8128-2328-1 . German translation by Wolfgang Stifter udT: Limerenz: about love and being in love. Kösel, Munich 1981, ISBN 3-466-34050-0 .
  7. ↑ Der Spiegel : Rascheln im Walde, March 3, 1980, accessed on February 19, 2016.
  8. ↑ Florian Rötzer: The material to fall in love with. In: Telepolis . November 29, 2005, accessed June 7, 2020.
  9. ↑ Hubert Erb: The dumping prices of a lovesick brain. 2004.
  10. ↑ BNV-Bamberg 2003 Glück ( Memento of the original from September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bnv-bamberg.de
  11. ↑ Gabriele and Rolf Froböse: Lust and love - everything just chemistry? Wiley-VCH, 2004, ISBN 3-527-30823-7 .
  12. ↑ Enzo Emanuelea et al .: Raised plasma nerve growth factor levels associated with early-stage romantic love. In: ScienceDirect / Journal: Psychoneuroendocrinology, University of Pavia, Pavia 2005. doi : 10.1016 / j.psyneuen.2005.09.002
  13. ↑ Being in love lasts only one year. In: psychologie-heute.de . December 5, 2005, archived from the original on September 16, 2007 ; accessed on October 26, 2018 .
  14. ↑ Stephan Schleim: The basis of trust. 2005.
  15. ↑ K. Uvnäs-Moberg, I. Arn, D. Magnusson: The psychobiology of emotion: the role of the oxytocinergic system. In: Int J Behav Med. 2005, 12, pp. 59-65.
  16. ↑ Roger Nickl: Reading feelings. In: 175years.uzh.ch. University of Zurich, 2006, accessed on September 30, 2019 .
  17. ↑ Bas Kast: Love and how passion is explained . Fischer-Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2006, ISBN 3-596-16198-3 .
  18. ↑ Love makes men more feminine - and women more masculine. In: Image of Science. May 6, 2004, accessed September 8, 2019 .
  19. ↑ Thomas Boehm: Quality control in the immune system. (Control of partner selection). ( Memento of January 8, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Max Planck Institute for Immunobiology, Participating Departments: Development of the Immune System, Freiburg 2005.
  20. ^ C. Wedekind: MHC genes, body odors, and odor preferences . In: Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation . tape 15 , no. 9 , September 1, 2000, ISSN  0931-0509 , p. 1269-1271 , doi : 10.1093 / ndt / 15.9.1269 .
  21. ^ HLA and Mate Choice in Humans
  22. ^ "Studiozeit" broadcast, June 2, 2005, Deutschlandfunk.