Love potion?

As reported in the New York Times science section last tuesday, the current edition of the journal Nature contains a very interesting article by Dr. Larry Young of the Primate Research Center at Emory University. Entitled, "Anti-Love Drug May Be Ticket to Bliss", it describes the findings of Dr. Young at his primate research center on the neochemistry of the "feeling" of love. The possible benefits? The future could see a pharmaceutical meant to bring about the feelings of love for a particular person. The proposal by NY times writer John Tierney is equally fascinating - an "anti-love" potion that will, as he states, "prevent you from making an infatuated ass out of yourself" (I love that line!).

Essentially, when we fall in love, we get stupid. The feeling of falling in love is actually akin to obsessive compulsive personality disorder. We cling, get ridiculously giddy and in the process often become dependent on the object of our affections. This can be a good thing - falling in love often "tricks" our minds into marriage and forms a lifelong bond. However, it can be extremely detrimental to ourselves and our relationships as well. More and more people have begun to associate the feelings of romantic love with "true" love. If they don't feel it then something must be wrong. Is this a product of our increasingly materialistic culture? Is it related to our demand for high speed feedback and our fast paced lifestyle? I don't know if there is any causation or correlation in that regard, though I could speculate that there must be some relation.

My grandparents generation was much different - I don't mean to say it was a "better time" or even a "simpler time" - different is as much as you can say. Society was different, technology was different - Certainly communication was much more limited without cell phones and the internet - all those people you re-connected with on Facebook? You probably never would have seen or heard from them again. There is also the movement of females from the kitchen to the workforce (PLEASE - Im making no statement whatsoever on the women's liberation movement - merely poiting out the factual differences between generations!). More women working meant more men and women spending time with the opposite gender at work (and less time at home with their spouses). I'm not about to go out on a neo-darwinistic limb and suggest that there is something biological regarding people's propensity for infidelity. In all seriousness, it is my belief that in addition to our genetic pre-dispostions to certain behaviors there is the all-powerful "human" x-factor - There is something very different from us as humans than there is from the rest of the natural world. Some people associate with religion, some people just believe in a soul but most people would be hard-pressed (except maybe noted atheist Richard Dawkins)to deny that there is a "specialness" to us that must lie in some other factor. Of course, my thinking that we are special could also be an evolved response, a gene that causes my brain to think that way. Personally, I'd like to believe in free will.

Tha being said, the idea of a real "love potion" is pretty intriguing. Give yourself a booster in tandem with some good old fashioned marriage therapy and PRESTO!! back on the honeymoon!! I don't know that it would come that easily but certainly hormones and chemicals can play with our brains, alter our moods and ultimately help us to be in a better position to make decisions and think about our lives. Conversely, the idea of an "anti-love potion" is interesting as well - go to the self help section of any book store and you can find countless books on the warning of becoming too intimate with the wrong person - with this a little shot and boom - the person might as well be a virus that you are vaccinated against.

Interesting, possibly very scary stuff. Of course, the first thing I thought of when I read the article was the Planters commercial from the super bowl last year - just think if this girl got her hands on the real love potion!!