Summary and Response Essay

Benedict Carey essay “The Brain in Love” explores a more logical and scientific reason as to why we fall in love. Carey uses the findings of various scientist to prove there is biological reasoning behind people being attracted to another. The phenomenon of love has always been unexplainable, we know that it’s our job to reproduce offspring’s, but the feeling and emotion of love is something totally different. Your brain plays a part in who you love, how you fall in love, and how you love in general. It’s in our biology to love and fall in love. You can feel desire for any person you just happen to see, but love has the ability to focus your attention on one person and act out of your normal character.

Carey starts off the essay by explaining what his occupation is, which is writing for the New York Times on psychology and human behavior. Then he goes into why he’s writing this essay “the role biology plays to determine attraction” (1). Meaning what is it about humans that makes us susceptible to love? Something about love makes us feel different as compare to being with any other person, so Carey includes the works of scientist Helen Fisher an anthropologist from Rutgers University, Andreas Bartels and Semir Zeki from the University of London, and Ellen Berscheid from the University of Minnesota. They each study different aspects of human brain and people’s actions to prove that love is real. First Carey talks about Fishers findings after she does an MRI scan and studies a person’s brain when they’re in love. Then he transitions into talking about two English professor adding on to Fishers work, Bartels and Zeki. What they found was high amounts of dopamine released in a person’s brain when show pictures of someone they’re attracted to, “Dopamine, the chemical messenger closely tied to states of euphoria, craving, and addiction” (2). This showed a strong reaction when showed a picture of someone a person loves. Berscheid talks about how people change when they enter a relationship and tend to overlook obvious flaws about a person, and become somewhat naïve. However, the essay also states that over time these feelings may diminished towards an individual when you neglect their downside, causing the relationship to end. Towards the end of the essay it starts to explain that love is tricky and can wear out quickly over time, but you have to choose the right person you give your love to and pass the “honeymoon” stage. It’s okay to fall in and out of love, something about love consumes you almost like drugs.

Carey is trying to provide facts that prove loves is real and it gives off a feeling that’s hard to explain, describe, or see. These studies are a basis of his theory that technically it’s in our biology to fall in love. Throughout his essay he uses facts that prove love makes people act different and makes us give off different emotions, but he also states how these finding are a work in progress. By providing multiple views on love, you know he’s optimistic about whether love can be proven real or not. By providing multiple statements on the topic this allows the reader to form their own opinion on whether they think love can be proven or not. There are multiple forms of love and Carey is specifically discussing Eros which is one of the categories the Ancient Greek created which represents the romantic part of a relationship, like boyfriend and girlfriend.    

Love can technically be proven, the facts in the essay do prove that people react differently when they see a person they love. Love can be proven because they do provide factual evidence to support it’s a part of us to love. However, they should continue to conduct more studies on love, like comparing the differences of a new couple and an older couple to see how their relationships differ. They mention logical reasoning and it’s agreeable that sometimes people fall in love too quickly and rush into things when in relationships, especially new ones. It helps people to understand was a sufficient relationship actually is and that is should be taken at a comfortable pace. In the article Bartels and Zeki mention “biologist have linked high levels of dopamine and a related agent, norepinephrine, to heightened attention and short term memory, hyperactivity, sleepless ness, and goal-oriented behavior” (2). This detail shows how people behaviors change when they fall in love which reminded me of the term lovesickness, when a person goes into an almost distressed state when the love they feel for someone isn’t reciprocated. The painting “Antiochus and Stratonice” is about Antiochus a prince who mysteriously falls ill one day and his father the king calls a doctor to come check up on him. The doctor has every woman in the palace pass by Antiochus and when his young step mom Stratonice passes by his pulse starts beating rapidly and erotically. Antiochus fell in love with her, but his inability to have her made him fall ill. At the end the king ended up being tricked into giving his wife away to his son and then Antiochus ends up being cured of lovesickness. The symptoms of love sickness are un even heartbeat, high body temperature, inability to sleep, no appetite, delirium, and sadness. These symptoms are similar to the research found by the biologist, people tend to act out of character experiencing restlessness and a giddy feeling whenever they’re in love. One reoccurring pattern in a lot of the literature read in class is tendency for characters to develop lovesickness. In Mikhail Lermontov’s “A Hero of Our Time” they’re two character Mary and Pechorin who develop a romantic relationship. However, Pechorin is a narcissist and is only using Mary so he can make her fall in love with him just so he can reject her, he does this because it feeds his ego. In the story it says “Perhaps you wish me to be the first to say that I love you… Do you wish is” (133) and Pechorin responds “What for?” (133) and shrugged his shoulders. This scene is important because in 19^th century Russia it was disrespectful for a woman to admit she loved a man before he did, and it made her lose her honor. Pechorin purposely makes Mary admit her feelings for him in order to make her feel shameful for doing so. Throughout the book he constructed every move so she would “idealize” him which is mentioned in the article. Berscheid mentions “newly smitten lovers often idealize their partners, magnifying the other’s virtues and explaining away their flaws” (3), this is also known as the “pink lens effect”. This happens to Mary she becomes blinded by Pechorin’s love and wasn’t able to see he was just using her for his own pride. This scene is also crucial because it represents how times have changed. Fisher tell you it’s okay to fall in love and make mistakes “People make wrong choices all the time” (3). She also includes “The emotional fallout from that kind of decision is no less awful for its being wrong, of course” (3).  This shows that something that was once seen as unacceptable is now acceptable, and isn’t made as big a deal as compare to 19^th century Russia. Women could have been shunned by society for falling in love with a man and not having the relationship work out, or for just showing affection towards a significant man. This type of vulgar love wasn’t allowed and you weren’t allowed to show love which shows as a society a lot of progress has been made when it comes to love.

Carey’s finding help add onto the idea that love is real and there is evidence that represent love is its own feeling compared to lust and desire.  The idea that people change their personas around someone they love and tend to turn a blind eye when they’re in love relates to the stories we’ve read in class. What’s different about the article with Carey and the researchers thinking, is there’s more optimism as compared to these older readings where women are seen as having to be obedient and follow the rules men and society have inflicted on them, or their lives could be tarnished. This essay helped us understand the way our brain reacts when it’s in love and why sometime the way we act tends to be irrational compared to our normal behavior.

Work Cited Page

1. “12 June.” A Hero of Our Time, by M. I. U. Lermontov et al., Alfred A. Knopf, 1992, pp. 133–134.

• Carey, Benedict. “The Brain in Love.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 16 Dec. 2002, www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-dec-16-he-love16-story.html.

• Shmidt, Jane. “Ancient Greek Types of Love.” CUNY Login, 1 Aug. 2020, bbhosted.cuny.edu/webapps/blackboard/execute/displayLearningUnit?course_id=_1877696_1.

• Shmidt, Jane. “Lovesickness: A History.” CUNY Login, 1 Aug. 2020, bbhosted.cuny.edu/webapps/blackboard/execute/displayLearningUnit?course_id=_1877696_1.

• Shmidt, Jane. “The High Middle Ages Europe 100 1300 CE Courtly Love Tradition.” CUNY Login, 1 Aug. 2020, bbhosted.cuny.edu/webapps/blackboard/execute/displayLearningUnit?course_id=_1877696_1.