loveThe Chemistry of Love, Understanding the Hormonal and Neurotransmitter Basis of Romantic Attraction.

Ayeshmanthi Dissanayake
3 min readMar 30, 2023

I am sure we all have left ‘love’ — love of a mother, love of a friend, romantic love, children and parent love. Love takes different forms. We face different types of love at different ages. Everyone loves ‘love’, but what does science has to tell us about ‘love’? I am sure you already know love is a vast topic. It’s hard to say this is love.

Love has different definitions. Different people have given descriptions of what and how they felt or experienced love. When it comes to the creative side of love, there are beautiful poems, songs, philosophers of the topic. Romantic love has been described as an illness, “lovesick”. Most importantly, love is felt, and we can’t touch it. It is considered as the most beautiful though every one of us has deemed.

Love increases our levels of cortisol. It’s a healthy hormone that increases our immunity levels. Also, love turns on dopamine which is a neurotransmitter. Though there is still ongoing research on ‘love’, many scientists have said that love is considered a really complex subject area.

There are plenty and more research available to read than earlier. Learning something new about love is attractive. Love keeps updating with new research findings every day. Think of your romantic lover; he is your companion, your best friend, your co-parent, you both share your life together. Have you ever thought about what made you both fall in love? Could you imagine how much a mother loves her kids? Can you imagine any tool to measure love? No, that’s why it’s very complicated.

When it comes to love research most popular philosophers who have talked about love are classical Greek philosophers. One of the main ideas of love spoken by Plato is called ‘Plato’s symposium. Also, another four philosophers made a significant impact on the way we look at love. First Charles Darwin, he introduced essential concepts, strategies on love. The second important figure is Sigmund Freud, who came out with ‘psychodynamic principles such as early life experiences. The third important figure is Margaret Mead; she came up with awareness to vivid descriptions of cultural variations in the expression of love and sexuality. He talked about the influence of socialization and recognizing cultural variation in many aspects of love.

Therefore what actually is love? According to Reis and Aron, romantic love is defined as a desire to enter, maintain, or expand a close, connected, and ongoing relationship with another person. He says there are two aspects of romantic love, which are commitment and intimacy. Also, the other two essential components of love, according to researchers, are caring and trust.

Everybody loves to be loved. It’s a basic human need according to Maslow’s hierarchy of love. So it is considered a basic human need. A parent’s love is essential for a kid to function properly; kids’ love would keep parents happy. A good relationship with your spouse will provide you with so many benefits. In contrast, the darker side of marriage gives you harmful effects such as suicides, anxiety, depression, homicides, and primary and minor emotional benefits. Therefore, love is an important and significant topic in studies cause it can keep you either

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Ayeshmanthi Dissanayake

Empowering through writing, freelancing, and counseling. Passionate about personal development, relationships, and psychology.