The unpalatable truth is that falling in love is, in some ways,
indistinguishable from a severe pathology. Behavior changes are reminiscent
of psychosis and, biochemically speaking, passionate love closely imitates
substance abuse. Appearing in the BBC series Body Hits on December 4, 2002
Dr. John Marsden, the head of the British National Addiction Center, said
that love is addictive, akin to cocaine and speed. Sex is a “booby trap”,
intended to bind the partners long enough to bond.
Using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), Andreas Bartels and
Semir Zeki of University College in London showed that the same areas of the
brain are active when abusing drugs and when in love. The prefrontal
cortex - hyperactive in depressed patients - is inactive when besotted. How
can this be reconciled with the low levels of serotonin that are the
telltale sign of both depression and infatuation - is not known.
Other MRI studies, conducted in 2006-7 by Dr. Lucy Brown, a professor in the
department of neurology and neuroscience at the Albert Einstein College of
Medicine in New York, and her colleagues, revealed that the caudate and the
ventral tegmental, brain areas involved in cravings (e.g., for food) and the
secretion of dopamine, are lit up in subjects who view photos of their loved
ones. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that affects pleasure and motivation.
It causes a sensation akin to a substance-induced high.
On August 14, 2007, the New Scientist News Service gave the details of a
study originally published in the Journal of Adolescent Health earlier that
year. Serge Brand of the Psychiatric University Clinics in Basel,
Switzerland, and his colleagues interviewed 113 teenagers (17-year old), 65
of whom reported having fallen in love recently.
The conclusion? The love-struck adolescents slept less, acted more
compulsively more often, had “lots of ideas and creative energy”, and were
more likely to engage in risky behavior, such as reckless driving.
Continue to read this article here (click on this link):
http://samvak.tripod.com/lovepathology.html
Recent studies in animal sexuality serve to dispel two common myths: that
sex is exclusively about reproduction and that homosexuality is an unnatural
sexual preference. It now appears that sex is also about recreation as it
frequently occurs out of the mating season. And same-sex copulation and
bonding are common in hundreds of species, from bonobo apes to gulls.
Moreover, homosexual couples in the Animal Kingdom are prone to behaviors
commonly - and erroneously - attributed only to heterosexuals. The New York
Times reported in its February 7, 2004 issue about a couple of gay penguins
who are desperately and recurrently seeking to incubate eggs together.
Continue to read this article here (click on this link):
http://samvak.tripod.com/sexnature.html
In nature, male and female are distinct. She-elephants are gregarious,
he-elephants solitary. Male zebra finches are loquacious - the females mute.
Female green spoon worms are 200,000 times larger than their male mates.
These striking differences are biological - yet they lead to differentiation
in social roles and skill acquisition.
Alan Pease, author of a book titled “Why Men Don’t Listen and Women Can’t
Read Maps”, believes that women are spatially-challenged compared to men.
The British firm, Admiral Insurance, conducted a study of half a million
claims. They found that “women were almost twice as likely as men to have a
collision in a car park, 23 percent more likely to hit a stationary car, and
15 percent more likely to reverse into another vehicle” (Reuters).
Continue to read this article here (click on this link):
http://samvak.tripod.com/sexgender.html
Our sexual behavior expresses not only our psychosexual makeup but also the
entirety of our personality. Sex is the one realm of conduct which involves
the full gamut of emotions, cognitions, socialization, traits, heredity, and
learned and acquired behaviors. By observing one’s sexual predilections and
acts, the trained psychotherapist and diagnostician can learn a lot about
the patient.
Inevitably, the sexuality of patients with personality disorders is thwarted
and stunted. In the Paranoid Personality Disorder, sex is depersonalized and
the sexual partner is dehumanized. The paranoid is besieged by persecutory
delusions and equates intimacy with life-threatening vulnerability, a
"breach in the defenses" as it were. the paranoid uses sex to reassure
himself that he is still in control and to quell is anxiety.
Continue to read this article here (click on this link):
http://samvak.tripod.com/personalitydisorders47.html
----- Original Message -----
From: “thephoenix101” npd-cpt6590@lists.careplace.com
To: palma@unet.com.mk
Sent: Thursday, November 01, 2007 5:51 PM
Subject: [npd] in my unrelated research I came across this
