Romantic Love Redoux: Rethinking Romantic Love and Drug Addiction
The purpose of this paper is to understand how recent brain imaging research has shed light on the development and processes of romantic love in couple relationships and how this research has affected the definition and meaning of romantic love. Recent neuroscience research confirms that brain regions activated in drug addiction overlap with brain areas activated in a person experiencing romantic love. The brain systems that are most activated include the reward network, memory storage, areas of huge vasopressin and oxytocin receptors, and pain reduction. While partial overlap in the reward system occurs for both drug addiction and romantic love, the authors argue that the long-term positive effects of naturally occurring romantic love varies greatly from drug addiction, which is not a naturally occurring activity in the reward system. The authors take the view that because of the long-term positive effects of romantic love, defining it primarily as a drive or goal-oriented behavior like cocaine use minimizes its overall place in the establishment and maintenance of an intimate relationship. Romantic love reflects the implicit memory system that is formed prior to conscious thought. Furthermore, the authors believe that therapy for romantic partners has little in common with therapy for drug addicts. Recent research attests to the involvement of negative emotional activation in the amygdala, which can be blocked without preventing experiencing naturally occurring rewarding behaviors. This finding is counter to research that concluded that emotional systems are not activated by romantic love.
Neuroscience, Romantic Love, Couple Relationships, Psychotherapy, Addiction
[1]
Hendrick, S. S., & Hendrick, C. (1992) Romantic love. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
[2]
Roberts, T. W. (1992) Sexual Attraction and romantic love: Forgotten variables in marital therapy. `Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 18, 357-364.
[3]
Sailor, J. L. (2013). A phenomenological study of falling out of romantic love. The Qualitative Report, 18 (19), 1-22.
[4]
Hazen, C., & Shaver, P. (1987). Romantic love conceptualized as an attachment process. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 511-524.
[5]
Jankowiak, W. R., & Fischer, E. F. (1992). A cross-cultural perspective on romantic love. Ethnology, 31, 149.
[6]
Johnson, S. M. (1986). Bonds or bargains: Relationship paradigms and their significance for marital therapy. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 12, 259-268.
[7]
Glover, G. H. (2011). Overview of functional magnetic resonance imaging. Neurosurgery Clinics of North America, 22 (2), 133-139.
[8]
Zeki, S., & Romaya, J, (2008). Neural correlates of hate, PLoS ONE 3 (10): e3556. doi: 101371/journal. pone0003556.
[9]
Steenbergen, H., Langslag, S., Band, G., and Hommel, B. (2014). cognitive control in passionate lovers. Motivation and Emotion, 38, 444-450.
[10]
Loyola University Health System Researchers (2014, Feb). What falling in loves does to your health and brain. Retrieved July 25, 2018 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/02/14026155244.htm.
[11]
Ortigue, S., Bianchi-Demicheli, F., Patel, N., Frum. J., & Lewis, J. W. (2010). Neuroimaging of love: fMRI meta-analysis evidence toward new perspectives in Sexual Medicine. The Journal of Sexual Medicine, 7, 3541-3552.
[12]
Aron, A., Fisher, H. E., Mashek, D. J., Strong, G., Li, H. F., & Brown, L. L. (2005). Reward, motivation and emotional systems associated with early-stage intense romantic love: An fMRI study. Journal of Neurophysiology, 94, 327-337.
[13]
Beauregard, M., Levesque, J., & Bourgouin, P. (2001). Journal of Neuroscience, 21, RC165, doi: https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.21-18-j0001.2001.
[14]
Aron, A., & Aron, E. N. (1991). Falling in love: Perspective studies of self-concept change. Journal of Personal and Social Psychology, 69, 1102-1112.
[15]
Fisher, H. E., Brown, L. L., Aron, A., Strong, G., & Mashek, D. (2010). Reward, addiction, and emotional regulation systems, associated with rejection in love. Journal of Neurophysiology. 104, 51-60. doi: 10.1152/jn.00784.2009.
[16]
Fisher, H. E., Xu, X., Aron, A., & Brown, L. L. (2016). Intense, passionate, romantic love: A natural addiction? How the fields that investigate romantic and substance abuse can inform each other. Front Psychology Journal, 10 May 2016 https: doi.org/103389/fpsg.2016.00687.
[17]
Mitchell, J. J., Gillespie, S. M., &Abu-Akel, A. (2015). Similar effects of oxytocin and acute alcohol consumption on socio-cognitions, emotions, and behaviors: Implications for the mechanisms of actions. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 55, 98-106.
[18]
Acevada, B., Aron, A., Fisher, H., & Brown, L. L. (2011). Neural correlates of long-term intense romantic love. Social, Cognitive, and Affective Neuroscience, doi: 10.1093/scan/nsq092.
[19]
Buckner, R. L., Andrews-Hanna, J. R., & Schacter, D. L. (2008). The brain’s default network: Anatomy, functioning, and relevance to disease. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1124, 1-38. doi: 10.1196/annals.1440.011.
[20]
Bartels, A., & Zeki, S. (2004). The neural correlates of maternal and romantic love. Neurolmage. 21, 1155-1166.
[21]
Esch, T., & Stefano, G. B. (2011). The neurological between compassion and love. Medical Science Monitor, 17 (3), RA65-RA75.
[22]
Guzman, Y. F., Tronson, N. C., Jovasevic, V., Sato, K., Guedea, A. L., Mizukami, H., Nishimri, K., & Radulovic, J. (2013). Fear enhancing effects of septal oxytocin receptors. Neuroscience 2013; doi: 10.1038/nn.3465.
[23]
Cardoso, C., Ellenbogan, M. A., & Linnen, A. M. (2013). The effect of intranasal oxytocin on perceiving and understanding emotion on the Mager-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT). Emotion, 2013; doi: 10.1037/a 0034314.
[24]
Zak, (2012). The moral molecule: The source of love and prosperity. New York: Dutton.
[25]
Femke, T. A., Buisman-Pylman, N. M., Sumaki, T. J., Gordon, P. R., and Carter, C. S. (2014). Individual differences in underlying susceptibility to addiction: Role for the endogenous oxytocin system. Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior, 2014, 119: 22 doi: 10.1016/jpbb.2013.09.005.
[26]
Scheele, D., Willie, A., Kendrick, K. M., Stoffer-Wagner, B., Becker, B., Guntuckun, O.,…Hurlemann, R. (2013). Oxytocin enhances brain reward system responses in men viewing the faces of their partners, Journal of Neuroscience, 32 (46), 1607-9.
[27]
Kelley, A. E., & Berridge, K. C. (2002). The neuroscience of natural rewards: Relevance to addiction. Journal of Neuroscience, 22 (9), 3306-3311.
[28]
Muller, C. P., & Schumann, G. (2011). Drugs are instruments: A new framework for non-addictive Psychoactive drug use. Behavioral and Brain Science, 34, 293-347.
[29]
McGregor, I. S., & Bowen, M. T. (2012). Breaking the loop: Oxytocin as a potential treatment for addiction. Hormones and Behavior, 61, 331-339.
[30]
Machin, A. J., & Dunbar, R. I. M. (2011). The brain opioid theory of social attachment: A review of the evidence. Behavior, 148 (9/10). 985-1025.
[31]
Hong, Y. R., & Park, J. S. (2012). Impact of attachment, temperament and parenting on human development. Korean Journal of Pediatrics, 55 (12), 449-454.
[32]
De Drea, C. K. (2012). Oxytocin modules cooperate within the competition between groups: An investigation review and research agenda. Hormone and Behavior, 61, 419-428.
[33]
Koranyi, N., & Rothermund, K. (2012). When grass on the other side of the fence doesn’t matter: Reciprocal romantic interest neutralizes attentional bias towards attraction alternatives. Journal of Experiential and Social Psychology 48, 181-191.
[34]
Ryff, C. D., Singer, B. H., & Love, G. D. (2004). Positive health: Connecting well-being with biology. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B, 359, 1383-1394.
[35]
Peele, S., & Brodsky, A. (2015). Love and addiction. Watertown, MA: Broadrow.
[36]
DiDonato, T. E. (2015). How can you tell when you should just be friends? Psychology Today. Retrieved July 26, 2018 from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/meet-catch-keep/20161/how-can-you-tell-when-you-shoul-just-be-friends.
[37]
Anderson, J. (2014). The impact of family structure on the health of children: Effects of divorce. Linacre Quarterly, 81 (4), 378-387.
[38]
Bowen, M. (1985). Family therapy in clinical practice. New York: Aronson.
[39]
Sillivan, S. E., Whittard, J. D., Jacobs, M. M., Ren, Y., Mazoom. A. R., Caputi, F. F., Horvath, M.,…Hurd, Y. L. (2013). ELK1 transcription factor linked to dysregulated striatal mu opioid receptor signaling network and OPRM1 polymorphism in human heroin abusers. Biological Psychiatry, 74 (7), 511-519.
[40]
Barker, D. J., Simmons, S. J., Servillo, L. C., Bercovics, D., Root, D. H., Ma, S…. & West, M. O. (2014). Ultrasonic vocalizations: Evidence for an affective opponent process during cocaine self-administration. Psychopharmacology, 231 (5), 909-918.
[41]
Kallupi, M., Wee, S., Edwards, S., Whitfield, T. W., Oleata, C. S., Luu, G., Schmeichel, B. E.,…Roberts, M. (2013). Kappa Opioid receptor – mediated dysregulation of Gamma-Aminobutyric acidergic transmission in the central amygdala in cocaine addiction. Biological Psychiatry, 2013. doi: 10.1016/jbiopsych.2013.04.028.
