Love is Purely Psychological and Biological

            As the title suggests, love is purely psychological and biological.  It does not have to be made a deity.  It does not need to be attached to myths.  It does not even have to be a religion.  Humans did not evolve, as the old Greek myth says, from hermaphrodites (although we might have evolved from single celled organisms).  These myths come from people searching for an explanation.  They did not have the scientific method as we have today.  But since love is not something we can test with the scientific method, we have to use our gift of reason.  And as much as I hate to say it, there is not that “special someone” out there for everyone.

            Sigmund Freud divided the mind into three different sections;  the id, the ego, and the superego.  The id is the irrational part.  It does not use the thinking process.  Instead, the urges of the body take place in the id.  The superego, on the other hand, is the reason, or the rational side of the mind.  Love develops, I believe, in the id.  If anyone really sits to think about love, they will most likely find that love has no basis in reason.  Love could develop from lust, in which case lust is an urge from the id, or love can develop from a friendship, and friendship also starts off from the id (the feeling of longing for someone because one feels alone is an urge).

            Love can develop differently under different situations.  In one situation, the one mentioned by Diane Ackerman in “Plato:  The Perfect Union,” a boy and his mother are separated.  Searching for someone to fill the void, It is easy to see how the person can find someone and fall in love.  And, as in Freudian psychology, that person he falls in love with resembles or shares some traits with his mother.  In another situation a girl’s boyfriend could just have broken up with her and, in desperation, she searches for someone to fill his spot.  Infatuation occurs and rarely does love happen.  There is a quote that says “opposites attract.”  This is not magic.  This phrase has its place in psychology.  The traits or advantages one person lacks may be found in another person.  And in an attempt to complete oneself, they fall in love.  The explanation is obvious when people who are alike fall in love.  They seek someone with common interests, and when they find each other they fall in love.  There is also the type of love that develops from a friendship.  This one, as well, is not too hard to see through.  Two people meet, they befriend each other, they date, form a relationship, until finally they believe they love each other. 

            A fact that I imagine everyone knows is that love takes place in and only in the brain.  This being said, love is subjective, but I will get to that later.  There is a true story about a man named Phineus Gage.  Phineus Gage, I learned, worked on a railroad.  He was a kind an loving man with a great personality.  One day an explosion went off during a routine, but something had gone wrong and the explosion sent pieces of rock and pipe flying at high speeds.  Unfortunately, one pipe went through the front of Phineus Gage’s head.  Miraculously enough, he survived.  After that though, he was not the same man.  When the pipe went through his head it took out his frontal lobe.  He was not nice and loving anymore.  He became frustrated all the time and started to drink heavily.  The point of the story raises a question;  if love takes place in the brain, what happens if that piece of brain is removed?  This proves that love is not absolute, if everyone had that part removed, love would not exist, it is relative.  There are also mind altering drugs, from drugs that distort the senses, to drugs that make on happy, to drugs that make one angry.  Can a person hyped up on these “angry drugs” be a loving person at the same time?  Probably not.

            The primitive part of the mind (the id), Plato said, had to be controlled.  When all parts of the mind (id, ego, and superego) work in harmony, then one can be complete.  Plato said that harmony is the rational side of the mind ruling over the primitive side.  But why should love give into reason?  To answer this, we have to look at the consequences of love.  Most of the time, what appears to be love turns out to be infatuation.  This observation draws up the question;  “can true love really exist?”  If by true, they mean absolute, then no it can not, because love is subjective, love does not last forever, as some believe.  It is possible for a person to control love.  As Plato said, it would be a hard road to take, and it would take enormous self discipline, but it is possible.  “In the Symposium he advises people to bridle their sexual urges and also their need to give and receive love.  They should concentrate that energy on higher goals.  He understood perfectly well that people would have to struggle hard to redirect such powerful instincts;  it would produce much inner warfare,” (Ackerman 840).  He was right when he said it would produce much inner warfare, but are these “higher goals” not worth it.  Think about how much could be done if all the energy put into love could be redirected.  What if one could put more energy or effort into art, music, writing, sports, or other activities (world peace maybe?).  Just because one suppresses love does not mean he/she will be a sadder person.  If anything, the person would emerge stronger and independent, a figure many look up to.  In the end, it is a choice between two roads.  One road leads to love, where there is a 50/50 chance of ending in happiness.  The other road  is a road that one walks alone.  But if the road is taken, the end will bring strength, and Plato’s “higher goals.”