TEDTalks: Helen Fisher (2006) Biochemical foundations of Love and Lust

2 biggest social trends in the next century?

1. Women moving back into the job market
2. The aging population

fMRI scanning of people in various states of love (or being out of love)

Main characteristics of romatic love: craving, motivation and obsession.

She claims that romantic love is not an emotion but a drive, ie, motivation or craving. "I think it's more powerful than the sex drive."

3 basic brain systems that have developed as a result of evolutionary/reproductive cycles: sex drive; romantic love; attachment (sense of calm and security).

These 3 systems translate as Lust, romantic love and deep attachment to a partner.

As woman are moving back into the job market in many cultures, they're acquiring the status that that had in earlier human societies.

Differences between male/female brains - woman have greater verbal ability (people skills, long term planning, putting ideas into more complex patterns, holistic thinking); men tend to get rid of what they consider as extraneous so they can focus.

Moving towards a collaborative society where the talents of both sexes are valued and employed together.

Return to an ancient form of marriage equality. "The symmetrical marriage"; "The peer marriage" whereby partners are equal.

SECOND TREND: The aging population. Trend - the older you get, the less likely you are to get divorced.

The 3 brain systems aren't always connected to each other, eg. you may feel deep attachment to someone while you feel sexual attraction to someone else.

"I don't think honestly we're an animal that was built to be happy - we were built to reproduce."

Fisher is worried about antidepressants (eg. serotonin enhancing). Serotonin enhancing drugs supress dopamine, therefore suppressing sex drive. Therefore, if you tamper with one system you tamper with other systems.

Paulo Coelho's "The Alchemist"

"Because it's not love to be static like the desert, nor is it love to roam the world like the wind. And it's not love to see everything from a distance, like you do. Love is the force that transforms and improves the Soul of the World. When I first reached through to it, I thought the Soul of the World was perfect. But later, I could see that it was like other aspects of creation, and had its own passions and wars. It is we who nourish the Soul of the World, and the world we live in will be either better or worse, depending on whether we become better or worse. And that's where the power of love comes in. Because when we love, we always strive to become better than we are."