Limerence
State of mind / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Limerence is a state of mind which results from romantic feelings for another person, and typically includes intrusive, melancholic thoughts, or tragic concerns for the object of one's affection as well as a desire to form or maintain a relationship with the object of love and to have one's feelings reciprocated.
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Psychologist Dorothy Tennov coined the term "limerence" as an alteration of the word "amorance" with no other etymology[1] to describe a concept that had grown out of her work in the mid-1960s, when she interviewed over 500 people on the topic of love.[2] In her book Love and Limerence, she writes that "to be in a state of limerence is to feel what is usually termed 'being in love.'"[3] She coined the term to distinguish between this and other less-overwhelming emotions[4] and to avoid implying that people who do not experience it cannot experience love.[5]
According to Tennov and others, limerence can be considered a synonym for romantic love,[1][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] passionate love[13][9][11] or a form of romantic love.[14]
Anthropologist and author Helen Fisher writes that data collection on romantic attraction began with Love and Limerence, with Tennov collecting survey results, diaries, and other personal accounts.[15] Fisher describes Tennov's limerence as "a suite of psychological traits associated with 'being in love'", and theorizes it to be part of a biological "attraction system" involved with mate selection in mammals.[16][9]
Early-stage romantic love as described by Tennov is associated with dopamine reward circuits in the brain[9][17][18][8] and falling in love may lower serotonin levels which is associated with intrusive thinking.[19]