In Benedict Carey’s “The Brain in Love”, in the first paragraph he starts off by saying in what he believes is the reason how humans fall in loves de reason why they act the way they do. “But while Sanders focuses on how men and women are socialized into specific gendered roles, Carey focuses on the roles of biology to determine matters of attraction” (1). Carey’s theory as to how love functions in a human being is all due to nature. He believes that the way we love and how we act is genetics.. In my opinion, I agree with him to some extent because I do feel that the reason why we fall in love it’s in our genes. I believe that loving someone is all biology, whether it is in the early stages of love or the end, love is all science. However, when choosing or experiencing love it can be influenced by your surroundings, the environment you are in. Like many decision you may take, it can be swindled by the environment.

Carey backed his point by stating, “The biology of romance helps account for how we think about passionate love, and explain its insanity, why we might travel cross-country for a single kiss, and plunge into blackest despair if our beloved turns away”(1). Basically, he is saying that love makes you do all these things like travel abroad but when the love is not reciprocated it makes you feel empty. Likewise, in a video we saw, Prince Antiochus fell with what people call lovesick. He fell in love with his stepmother, Stratonica. Antiochus had been starving himself because he felt hopeless, he felt that they would never be together. The doctor had determined that the way he would be cured was if he was together with his stepmother. According to Carey, this lovesickness can be explained by science, anything related to science can be explained. His ideology is that biology, genetics are an essential part to figuring out how one human being loves, and is differentiated with lust and sexual drive. He then further explains that the brain is an essential piece when you initially fall in love, “Let’s say you walk into a party and there are several attractive women or men there. Your brain is registering this attraction for each one; then you talk to the third or fourth one, and whoosh—you feel something extra”(2). Like in “Nevsky Prospect”, Nikolai Gogol disclose the story of how this artist, Piskarev, falls deeply in love with this young woman when walking by Nevsky Prospect. At the beginning of the novel it is explained that this place is always full of people, respected people. In the novel it says, “I did, a wonderful girl, a perfect Perugino Bianca.” “But who are you talking about?” “Her, the dark-haired one. And what eyes!..” (251). He falls deeply in love with someone he just saw walking walking by. He then later says, “As if she were the kind yo walk about Nevsky Prospect in the evening. She must be a very noble lady…”(251). Even though there were so many other women walking through this street, Piskarev fell in love with a single lady, he singled her out. He even compared her to the Virgin Mary and stereotyped her by saying if she was walking by Nevsky Prospect then she must be a respected person. This is just further proves Carey’s ideology by stating how the brain makes these selections and being able to find similar ideas from different literature. I completely agree being in love or anything a human does can be explained through science. He has a point, love is all connected to the brain. When someone feels a connection with someone not only their hearts are activated but their brains are also activated, and which means chemicals in their brains are released. In University College London, scientists conducted an experiment where people were shown pictures of their close friend vs. a picture of their romantic partners, the results where, “The pictures showed that the experience of romantic attraction activated those pockets of the brain with a high concentration of receptors for dopamine, the chemical messenger closely tied to states of euphoria, craving, and addiction. Biologists have linked high levels of dopamine and a related agent, norepinephrine, to heightened attention and short-term memory, hyperactivity, sleeplessness, and goal-oriented behavior”(2). Love is sending messages to the  brain in a way, while the body receives all these chemicals. Dopamine is giving you the feeling of being reward for being in love. Being in love with someone gives you this satisfaction that nothing could ever do. In simple being in love allows these chemicals in the brain to be realized to amor the body feel good. However to much and too fast can create a fallout. Carey compared being in love like being a drug addict by adding “Like a drug addict would tell you,” said Regan, “the highs don’t last, but neither does the withdrawal. With time the craving and pain go away and the brain returns to normal”(4). Even though it feels good when there is too much of it and you consume it at a fast pace, you feel burnout. There’s this fallout created and the euphoria is gone. Then when it is gone you feel normal again. 

Carey theory of being in love and how the roles are placed due to biology are strongly supported throughout the article. He argues that the attraction to someone is genetics, his ideas resemble some ideas in different literatures and can be proven in different medias.

Works Cited

Carey, Benedict. “The Brain in Love.” New York Times, 16 Dec. 2002, pp. 1-4

Gogol Nikolai. Nevsky Prospekt. Editedby Michael Pursglove, Bristol Classical Press, 1835, pp. 251