EMOTION AND SEXUALITY OPTIMISTIC AND TENDER LOVERS LOVE

EMOTION AND SEXUALITY OPTIMISTIC AND TENDER LOVERS LOVE A N D PLEASURE THE STYLES OF LOVE SOURCES OF PLEASURE

THE STYLES OF LOVE Love is regarded as subjective and intimate, and has the following consequences: romance, falling in love, jealousy, protection, altruism. To describe the styles of love three theories have emerged from various sociologists and psychologists: The six styles of love Triangle theory Theory of exchange

THE SIX STYLES OF LOVE • • • The sociologist John Alan Lee wrote six philosophical and literary texts representing the couple's relationship: Eros (romantic love): is characterized by passion and desire. Ludus (playful love): characterized by sexual freedom searching for new adventures. Storge (friendly love): characterized by common interests and habits, this relationship derives from an established friendship. The two rarely argue and the center of the relationship are trust and security. Mania (jealous love): characterized by a determined possessive love and jealousy. Pragma (pragmatic love): characterized by an exact idea of their future which must be reconciled with the couple's relationship. Agape (altruistic love): characterized by self-denial and sacrifice. The good of others is prefixed to his own.

TRIANGLE THEORY Elaborated by the psychologist Robert Strenberg, is a theory that combines passion, intimacy and bonding. PASSION: love binds with sexuality; it is irrational and escapes our conscious control. INTIMACY: it allows the partners to be open to each other. BOND: Indicates how much time and energy we invest in a relationship. There are various possible types of triangles: passion intimacy passion bond intimacy Perfect love intimacy bond Love oriented to the passion bond Love oriented to the bond

THEORY OF EXCHANGE Written by the sociologist Harold Kelly: Humans build a lasting relationship only when they can gratify each other. If the love styles are similar there is a gain for both partners and this occurs in romantic, friendly, pragmatic and altruistic love. However, if two people are incompatible, each one tries to rehabilitate the other such as in the altruistic love. The way to love is also influenced by the experiences of the relationships made earlier. Love is not a destiny as a lot of people think, says Harold Kelly, but it is determined by our experiences and what we expect from it.

EMOTION AND SEXUALITY The emotions are the focus of discussions and theories both by scientists, psychologists and philosophers.

Joseph le Doux Le Doux has enunciated a number of theories that deal with strong emotions and relationships between the structures of the limbic system (the amygdala). Le Doux refers specifically to the fear that is a very significant primary emotion. Without the amygdala our body would not be able to perceive a series of warning signs: in humans and animals, these signals are interpreted by the limbic system that organizes the reactions. Subsequently, the signal reaches the cortex that may increase or repress these reactions.

Sigmund Freud According to Freud, sexuality is a primary need, which contributes to satisfy the needs of the organism. In their most reductionist needs it implies a biological features and automatic choices. Physiologists have described the level of the deep nucleus of the hypothalamus and brain mechanisms that serve to satisfy needs or deficiencies.

James Olds It is demonstrated with the research of James Olds that there are "pleasure centers". Pleasure is a a discharge of nervous mediators that "light up" in our brains. These instincts drive us to search for new and exciting stimuli. When sex goes to show a state of falling in love there is a component which opposes the quest for novelty: the attachment.

John Bowlby The attachment has a crucial role, it shows how from an early age we are emotionally involved with a figure of reference. When one partner feels abandoned, he experienced a kind of "mourning" the fact of being deprived of a form of security.

Michael Liebowitz In a love relationship , attachment comes later. In the first phase, the partners are living a state of euphoria that isolates them from the world. After that , they live a more peaceful emotional state in which the brain secretes endorphins which calm the mind and leads to feelings of safety. In this way the couple's bond is formed with a feeling of warmness and security.

PLEASURE DESIRE & LOVE

PLEASURE It is related to the desire that in the evolutionary process has been developed to promote reproduction. These events are mediated by various neurotransmitters that act in different brain structures. Stimulation excites the nerve bundles that pass through the requested area; this is possible thanks to dopamine stimulation. We don’t yet know all the brain areas involved in feelings of pleasure and love. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that plays a role in controlling the movement and reward systems in the brain.

DESIRE& LOVE Desire and love are produced primarily in the brain and direct our behavior. Sexual orientation depends on the identity acquired during life, which not only manifests in corporeal sexual characteristics, but also in the brain. Here a variety of hormones in particular sex ones , have a decisive importance. Preferring Partners of our own sex or the other one depends not only from our education, but also from the individual development of the brain. Physical attraction and bond with our partners, have the aim of ensuring the biological reproduction. Sexual behavior is partially dissociated from a purely biological reproductive purposes, and that is why the aim to achieve sexual pleasure.

While falling in love has been noted and studied a phenomenon in which four areas are activated in the limbic system, simultaneously turn off nerve nucleus scattered. The four areas that show an intensification of their activities during the fall in love are located two in the putamen, one in front of the cingulate gyrus, and one in the insula.

In zoology, mating is the act of conjunction by which certain animals that reproduce by sexual reproduction Dioecious or hermaphroditic achieve fertilization. Neurophysiological studies, reveal that the regions of the hypothalamus stimulates sexual desire which are not activated by love.

NEUROTRANSMITTERS DOPAMINE SEROTONIN

DOPAMINE Dopamine is a catecholamine neurotransmitter present in a wide variety of animals, including both vertebrates and invertebrates. Dopamine is produced in several areas of the brain, including the substantia nigra and the ventral tegmental area. Dopamine is also a neurohormone released by the hypothalamus. Its main function as a hormone is to inhibit the release of prolactin from the anterior lobe of the pituitary. Dopamine is available as an intravenous medication acting on the sympathetic nervous system, producing effects such as increased heart rate and blood pressure. However, because dopamine cannot cross the blood-brain barrier, dopamine given as a drug does not directly affect the central nervous system. To increase the amount of dopamine in the brains of patients with diseases such as Parkinson's disease and dopa-responsive dystonia, L-DOPA (the precursor of dopamine), is often given because it crosses the bloodbrain barrier relatively easily.

SEROTONIN Serotonin is a monoamine neurotransmitter. It is a well-known contributor to feelings of well-being; therefore it is also known as a "happiness hormone" despite not being a hormone. it has various functions that include the regulation of mood, appetite, sleep, as well as muscle contraction. Serotonin also has some cognitive functions, including in memory and learning. Serotonin secreted from the enterochromaffin cells eventually finds its way out of tissues into the blood. Serotonin also is a growth factor for some types of cells, which may give it a role in wound healing. One type of tumor, called carcinoid, sometimes secretes large amounts of serotonin into the blood, which causes various forms of the carcinoid syndrome of flushing, diarrhea, and heart problems In addition to animals, serotonin is also found in fungi and plants. Serotonin's presence in insect venoms and plant spines serves to cause pain, which is a side effect of serotonin injection. Serotonin is produced by pathogenic amoebas, and its effect on the gut causes diarrhea. Its widespread presence in many seeds and fruits may serve to stimulate the digestive tract into expelling the seeds.