The Expression Of Love And Addiction

Larry Young, a professor at Emory University, runs a lab that intensely studies the neuroscience behind love. He does not merely suggest that love is a strong attraction between people, but rather states that it is a behavioral addiction. His research, stated in his article, The Behavioral, Anatomical and Pharmacological Parallels Between Social Attachment, Love and Addiction, includes the overlap of drug addiction and attachment in the brain. Although his suggestions are entirely focused on what happens in the brain, they do coincide with Darwin’s observations on love between humans. In Darwin’s The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals, he writes on what happens to a person, physically, when they come in contact with someone they love.

In his book, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, Darwin writes on the basic emotions in man and how the physical expressions reflect them. Darwin specifically writes on love stating that although the emotion of love between a mother and child is the strongest, “it can hardly be said to have any peculiar means of expression” (Darwin 212). Darwin does not specifically state that love is an expression because it is made up many different emotions. When one is in love with someone or something else, emotions towards that object can range from happiness to deep sadness. In his book, Darwin mentions that when someone comes in contact with someone that they love, they tend to smile and their eyes brighten (Darwin 212). He continues to speak on human interaction, mentioning that kissing is a more European way of expressing love to one another and is not usually seen in other parts of the world (Darwin 213). Since love is so complex and causes people to act in unimaginable ways, it cannot be expressed in one way, but rather that love is a factor of such emotions. Love is the final outcome of many different expressions that it cannot be merely categorized as its one single