THEORIES ON LOVE Love involves a wide range of positive, strong emotions and thoughts toward another person. Love is different depending on the context. Parental love, for example, is different from romantic love. Love implies some type of attraction and emotional attachment. Love helps to facilitate many types of interpersonal relationships and is a big part of the creative arts. It is considered an evolutionary advantage to be able to love. Love can mean many different things and, in fact, since ancient times, there are several different types of love that have been named. An example is romantic love, called the eros in Ancient Greece. The opposite of love can be the presence of hate or neutral apathy. Love and lust are two different things and, while love and friendship are related, they are also not the same thing. One can have impersonal love toward a goal, principle, or object they are highly committed to and value a great deal. Material objects can be loved, such as the love for an animal, material object, or certain activity. Romantic love and passion for an object is called having a paraphilia. Most of what we consider to be love is interpersonal love. If it is unrequited, it means the love is not reciprocated. Interpersonal love can be between couples, close friends, or family members. The different theories on love relate to a variety of things, from biology, neuroscience, psychology, and anthropology. Love in biology is seen as a typical mammalian drive, related to thirst and hunger. There are three stages of love in some theories, which include lust, attraction, and attachment. There are different neural circuits associated with these three stages. Lust promotes mating and involves sexual desire. There is an increase in estrogen and progesterone in this phase. Attraction requires some type of mate selection, involving the neurotransmitters norepinephrine, dopamine, and serotonin. These are the same hormones seen when amphetamines are used. Both lust and attraction are temporary and lead sometimes to attachment. This involves long-term bonding and lasting relationships. Oxytocin and vasopressin are released in attachment.
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