LOVE is a Mental Illness?

[Lote-Tree]

Love is a Mental Illness?

Love is an Mental Illness. So goes the Dr. Frank Tallis Thesis in his book "Love Sick". This mental Illness has been recognised and recorded in papyrus by early Egyptians thousands of years ago. The symptoms of "Love Sickness" has been well documented by Muslim Physicians and writers of the early Islamic Empires, culminating in the writing of the all-time classic Love Story of "Layla and Majnun" - the Archeytype of all love stories. Love at First Sight, The Exhileration of meeting, The Infinite Possibilites of joy, The Love Triangle, Unrequited Love, The Separation, Yearning for the Beloved and The Madness and finally Death of the Lovers in the absence of each other.

Love starts off with joyfulness but it's a joy that has the inenvitable sadness attached to it. The High's and Lows of Love Sickness is same as that of a manic depressive - a mental illness that is now fully recongnised and has some effective remedy for it. Although love sickness is no longer recognised as an illness - so goes Tallis arguments, it has symptoms that can be readily diagnosed as a mental illness. Love Sickness can kill - from Sappho jumping off a cliff for unrequited love to lovers committing suicide. Love make us irrational. It unsettles us. Turns our world's upside down. Therefore this Illness needs a ready diagnoses and needs to be treated :-)

What say you chaps and chapses?

Is love an mental Illness?

Regards,
Lote

[Countess]

Yeah. I'll add it's an addiction too - (making a sufferer a "dual diagnosis"), because one gets totally high off of it, then when the lover leaves without so much as "goodbye", one goes through severe withdrawals and falls into a depression. I was "high" for about two years - a nice ride.

[Pensive]

Love Sickness can kill - from Sappho jumping off a cliff for unrequited love to lovers committing suicide.

Yes, at times, but it can make a person want to live. Breathes life into a gloomy person. Why not put it as it's a medicine for gloominess?

Love make us irrational.

I don't think so. People have very good reasons for loving. The need to love, the need to be loved are very good reasons.

It unsettles us. Turns our world's upside down.

Yes, at times, it unsettles us, but many times, it settles us. Turns our world into a good place, a place where we know there are people who care for us.

Therefore this Illness needs a ready diagnoses and needs to be treated :-)

I don't think so. It's not a mental illness itself but like anything else, it can cause illness. Even the longing to read a good book when he has not got any at home can turn a person upset, you can't say the books are a mental illness. One shan't read them. It all depends on the circumstances.

[Scheherazade]

Speaking from experience, Pensive?

[BibliophileTRJ]

Up until recently, I would have said "Love as a Mental Illness" is hogwash, and agreed with Pensive that its more likely the cure.

However as a guy going through a rough patch in his relationship I'm beginning to see the validity of that notion. I must be crazy to put myself through this. I must be crazier for wanting to continue the battle to save the relationship.

Clearly I am crazy. Crazy over him. I love him MADLY even if he pisses me off from time to time.

[Bii]

Define 'Love'.

[Pensive]

Speaking from experience, Pensive?

Yes. Experience as well as observation. Many mothers care for their children, and many children like it (and love back) and so do mothers. Those mothers don't feel as if they are losing energy by providing their children with love but they think are becoming more energetic and more happy. This love helps them as well as their children. I wouldn't like to call this a 'mental illness' after all. Such is the case with many other relationships/friendships.

[motherhubbard]

New love can be sickening. I remember the turmoil and joy I felt when my husband and I started dating. I had chronic stomach trouble until we had been married for about six or seven years. Now we have a more sustaining love it is just joy, comfort and confidence. I wouldn’t go back to new love for anything. Although, sometimes I miss the spontaneity.

[Lote-Tree]

Yeah. I'll add it's an addiction too - (making a sufferer a "dual diagnosis"), because one gets totally high off of it, then when the lover leaves without so much as "goodbye", one goes through severe withdrawals and falls into a depression. I was "high" for about two years - a nice ride.

Good point regarding Addiction.

Perhaps thats why many chase after the "highs" over and over again.

Tallis notes that men readily fall in love than women. But symptoms are just as same.

Yes, at times, but it can make a person want to live. Breathes life into a gloomy person. Why not put it as it's a medicine for gloominess?

But we can be perfectly happy without love. Therefore love is a sickness that needs to be overcome. Gloominess can be traced back to some form of love. The whole tradition of European Poetry "Meloncholia" has it's roots in lack of love.

I don't think so. People have very good reasons for loving. The need to love, the need to be loved are very good reasons.

But we can be perfectly happy without love?

Yes, at times, it unsettles us, but many times, it settles us. Turns our world into a good place, a place where we know there are people who care for us.

But only for transient moment. Love has it's joys but the pain is very prolonged and unneccessary?

I don't think so. It's not a mental illness itself but like anything else, it can cause illness.

But it has same symptoms as a manic depressives? or other mental illnesses?

[Pensive]

But we can be perfectly happy without love.

You can't be too sure about that. And even if you think we can be perfectly happy without love, it doesn't make love a mental illness.

Therefore love is a sickness that needs to be overcome.

Therefore love is not a sickness.

But only for transient moment. Love has it's joys but the pain is very prolonged and unneccessary?

I disagree. In every case, there is not a pain in love.

But it has same symptoms as a manic depressives? or other mental illnesses?

Well, it, like other emotions, can cause illness. Anger can cause mental illness, so can fear and hate. But anything that causes sickness doesn't have to be 'sickness' itself. Even a cake can cause sickness, but it doesn't have to be considered an sickness itself.

[Lote-Tree]

You can't be too sure about that.

Yes. We can be. We are perfectly happy until Love Sickness struck us. The experiences are quite Universal...

And even if you think we can be perfectly happy without love, it doesn't make love a mental illness.

If it moves like a cat, if it sounds like a cat and if it looks like a cat then it is a cat?

Therefore love is not a sickness.

LOVE is like OCD - Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

I disagree. In every case, there is not a pain in love.

If there is no pain then it aint love.

Well, it, like other emotions, can cause illness. Anger can cause mental illness, so can fear and hate.

These have ligitimate uses. They are not like OCD.

[motherhubbard]

are you saying that hate and anger are ligitimate and that love is not? That is a very sad statement.

[the silent x]

"I disagree. In every case, there is not a pain in love.

If there is no pain then it aint love."(quoted from lote tree and pensive)

i agree with lote, i fyou truly "love" someone, then you become attached to them, and there is extreme pain when you "love" some one and they don't like you the same amount back, since no one can look into others minds yet, we won't know when to become highly attached to a person to stop this pain from happening.

[Lote-Tree]

are you saying that hate and anger are ligitimate and that love is not? That is a very sad statement.

I am saying anger and hate is not classed as mental illness in the past or now. But the term Love Sick is old has humanity.

My personal view is this: LOVE is the most noblest of emotions. Love and compassion is what make us human.

But the argument of Dr Frank Tallis is book is focused on Romantic Love as an illness...

[Countess]

It is, indeed, noble madness and noble masochism. It's extremely noble and (not humane) divine, which is why it's like a knife through the heart and a slow death that never leads to death. One feels like one is dying but without the relief that comes with actual death, so it is a perpetual, unceasing torment of the soul...