Barbara Fredrickson's Theory Of Love

Love: The Emotional, Physical and Biological Feeling Love begets love. It is universally known that humans long for the feeling of love. However, what humans perceive as love might not be what love actually is. Many people believe love to be either physical or emotional, but it is never seen biological or physiological. Barbara Fredrickson, however, argues in her article “Selections from Love 2.0: How Our Supreme Emotion Affects Everything We Feel, Think, Do and Become” that people are looking at love with a closed view. Fredrickson explains how the system of love is divided in three sections, the brain, oxytocin, and the vagus nerve. Each plays a special part in making a human what they are emotionally and physically. All of these also play

While the three biological processes help a person understand love, it is not the only emotion they are exclusive to. This way of thinking can help someone understand anger as well as many other emotions. When a person experiences anger, it is difficult for them to truly understand why they are angry and how their body and mind are processing that anger. If one were to apply Fredrickson’s theory then everything would be clearer, allowing the person to gain a clearer scope on their situation and therefore understanding and dealing with their anger. She details that, “Mere photographs fail to capture these non stop and mostly unseen churning dynamics. Instead, you need movies” (Fredrickson, 109). She means that by only looking at a situation face value, one can not truly understand it. Therefore, by viewing it as dynamic and changing, like the emotions one faces in their day, one can truly understand the situation they are in. Using this new view on emotions as not something that is mystical but as biological and part of a system can genuinely help people understand emotions such as anger.
However, anger is not the only emotion that can be dealt with through a biological system, sadness and depression, feelings on the exact opposite on the emotional spectrum can be handled with this belief. Sadness is very different from anger, most likely one will know exactly why they are angry. On the other hand, there are time where someone is depressed and they can not pinpoint why they are depressed. By implementing these newly found strategies one can achieve a better understanding of why they are feeling these