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"Dreadful Desires: The Uses of Love in Neoliberal China" by Charlie Yi Zhang explores how love has been utilized by the Chinese state throughout its neoliberal economic transformation. The book argues that love functions as a social apparatus of the state and capital, creating a "borderless Loveland" that incorporates Chinese subjects of various class, gender, sexuality, and geographic positions into a national imaginary of modern China. The author examines different manifestations of love, including classless heteronormative love, homepatriarchal love, and homoromantic love among danmei fans. The book highlights the contradictions and unfulfilled promises of love, while also suggesting that it can be a tool for resistance against heteropatriarchal rule. [Extracted from the article]

Muslim women in popular Western imagination have usually been viewed as victims of forced marriages and suppressed individualistic rights to love/desire, and Islam as the primary source of it. The trend has intensified in the post-9/11 gendered Islamophobic spotlight. Anglophone literature by Muslim women writers has countered this monolithic narrative by exploring the multi-layered complexity and fluidity of Muslim womanhood. We aim to examine the subjectivity of Muslim women as explored in Kamila Shamsie's novel Salt and Saffron regarding love/desire and marriage by drawing on the concepts of performativity and third space to intervene in the discourse of Muslim women's gender subjectivity. We examine how the female protagonist (Aliya) transforms her consciousness of her rights and cultural norms into her battles for agency and expansive space for choice and decision in love and marriage without open confrontation against and submission to norms. This performative subjective position comes out as inclusive and agentive, re-signifying the norms and the individualist awareness into an indeterminate, third space of enunciation. We foreground the epistemology that interlaces mobility-shaped individualistic awareness and consciousness of norms to contradict the monolithic Muslim woman compliant/victim theoretical frame. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evolution of monogamy has been a central question in biological anthropology. An important avenue of research has been comparisons across "socially monogamous" mammals, but such comparisons are inappropriate for understanding human behavior because humans are not "pair living" and are only sometimes "monogamous." It is the "pair bond" between reproductive partners that is characteristic of humans and has been considered unique to our lineage. I argue that pair bonds have been overlooked in one of our closest living relatives, chimpanzees. These pair bonds are not between mates but between male "friends" who exhibit enduring and emotional social bonds. The presence of such bonds in male–male chimpanzees raises the possibility that pair bonds emerged earlier in our evolutionary history. I suggest pair bonds first arose as "friendships" and only later, in the human lineage, were present between mates. The mechanisms for these bonds were co‐opted for male‐female bonds in humans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some twenty years ago, sport philosopher Ken Saltman in 'Men with Breasts' argued that breasts in American culture signify nurturing motherhood, the object of love and desire, and are capable of selling numerous products from cars to perfume. Saltman focused on bodybuilding and argues that there is gender subversion in bodybuilding reinforced by stereotypical contradictoriness of gender norms, ideals and expectations. A dichotomy continues to exist in sport; women's breasts are often viewed as incompatible with sport, especially with respect to breastfeeding, as evidenced by the regulations leading up to the 2020 Tokyo games. Breasts are also viewed as nuisance in sport yet simultaneously breasts are highly sexually objectified which results in a challenging and sexist culture that women athletes are forced to navigate. In this article, I aim to provide an updated philosophical analysis on breasts, and argue that breasts continue to create a contested terrain for women athletes. In part one, I make a case for the sexual objectification of breasts and the sports bra in sport, and in section two, I focus on the incompatibility of breasts and challenges for breastfeeding athletes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article analyzes the configuration of affective grammars in the Argentine national community and highlights the importance of emotions in politics and everyday life. It examines how affective rhetorics are generated in social discourse and mentions the influence of mediatization on the ways of conceiving and talking about love. A methodology based on the categories of ethos and collective identification is used to analyze public texts related to love in Argentina. It emphasizes that love and affective relationships are objects of dispute in society, especially after the "Ni una menos" movement. [Extracted from the article]

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Although Chilean independence has been the focus of much historiographical attention, the study of political emotions is still a pending issue. This essay aims to understand the experience and the role of love, zeal and patriotism during the Chilean independence process between 1808 and 1823. By studying these expressions and their associated practices, the essay argues that love, zeal and patriotism were used to imagine and design the characteristics of the desired political subject, which was conceived as playing a fundamental role in the success of the political project aimed to be established. To this end, the essay will make use of a variety of documentation from the period, but taking as a core document the epistolary of Bernardo O'Higgins, one of the most important figures of the Chilean emancipation process, and of the Southern Cone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This Reply offers my answers to Cheshire Calhoun's, Elizabeth Brake's, and Monika Betzler's wonderful contributions to the Criminal Law and Philosophy symposium on Being Sure of Each Other (2020). Their contributions focus respectively on the conceptual and normative foundations of my defence of our human rights to have adequate social inclusion, the harms that might flow from recognising such rights as human rights, and the impact such rights can have on our most intimate relations. My replies aim both to clarify and solidify the argumentative basis for my account and to show that whatever harms and wrongs might dog the recognition of social human rights are nothing compared to the injustices that flow–and have long-flowed–from ignoring or attacking these rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Love-jihad is a conspiracy theory created by the Hindu right in India, which claims that Muslim men lure Hindu girls with love, marry them and then force them to convert to Islam. Language is used in legal, procedural and media-mediated ways to frame Muslim men and Hindu women and construct the nation-state. Using work on language and propaganda, as well as critical postcolonial studies, as theoretical frameworks, this article argues that the Hindu right uses language as a weapon to cause harm to Hindu women and Muslim men, and to reinforce Hindu supremacy. A study of language used by political leaders about love-jihad offers a look at the collusion between different dimensions of discrimination. On the one hand, nationalist Hindus discriminate against Muslim men; on the other hand, the same Hindus are weakening Hindu women’s abilities to make decisions about their own lives. The article also shows that the seeds of harm that are sown with propagandist language result in the creation of anti-Muslim legislation, which also harms Hindu women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Philologist / Filolog: Journal of Language, Literary & Cultural Studies is the property of University of Banja Luka, Faculty of Philology / Univerzitet u Banjoj Luci, Filoloski Fakultet and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Zhanan—a term that refers to heterosexual males who cause mental or physical damage to their romantic partners, regardless of intention—is becoming a high-profile issue in terms of love and marriage. Therefore, assessing whether women's partners are zhanan and preventing potential harm is important. The authors of the present study created the Self-rating Zhanan Evaluation Scale (SZES). Throughout the process of developing the scale, qualitative data were collected from eligible female subjects, and 27 items were retained via exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Then, in a sample (N = 419) of Chinese male participants, the SZES was shown to be well structured, with a four-factor model by both exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) validations. The structure was highly internally consistent and was stable over an 8-week period of retesting. The SZES is expected to help women identify inappropriate spouses and provide references for men to understand themselves better, as well as to help repair dysfunctional relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the classical Arabic sources ‘Ulayya bt. al-Mahdī b. al-Mansūr was a female poet and musician who lived during the Abbasid period. Not much information has survived about ‘Ulayya, who belonged to the Abbasid dynasty. However, some details of her life can be found in classical sources and some of her poems have survived thanks to these works. ‘Ulayya was the daughter of the Abbasid Caliph Mahdī-Billāh, and the half-sister of his successor, Hārūn al-Rashīd. It is said that Hārūn al-Rashīd was particularly interested in her education and encouraged his sister. ‘Ulayya bt. al-Mahdī was an artist known in Arabic literature mostly for her love poems and the songs she composed for them. In classical sources, it was claimed that ‘Ulayya was a very talented artist and even managed to surpass her brother Ibrāhīm b. al-Mahdī, who was a musician like her. ‘Ulayya bt. al-Mahdī’s importance stems from the fact that she was a woman who dealt with poetic themes usually associated with male poets, such as love and wine. The methodology adopted in this study aims to prove the theories on ‘Ulayya’s love poems through her verses. In the first chapter of this article on ‘Ulayya’s life, we have generally relied on the narrations of classical sources, but we have pointed out some contradictions in these works. The ancient literary historians who introduced ‘Ulayya to us claim that she was an extremely pious woman. However, an examination of her love poetry reveals that she composed love poems for people to whom she was not married. This contradicts the portrayed lifestyle of ‘Ulayya, who was supposed to be a very pious woman. ‘Ulayya once stated that her poems were essentially absurd words. This suggests that these poems were composed with literary concerns and did not reflect reality. However, there is also evidence to suggest that these love poems may be related to reality to a certain extent. For example, upon learning that ‘Ulayya was having an affair with palace attendants, Hārūn al-Rashīd forbade his sister from seeing them. Later, to alleviate ‘Ulayya’s sorrow over this prohibition, he presented her with the attendant she liked. In her poems, ‘Ulayya sometimes expresses her thoughts on the phenomenon of love. She thinks that love is essentially an irrational act, argues that love requires monogamy, glorifies unattainable loves, and believes that love is unsolvable. This article aims to reveal the life and love poetry of this extraordinary female poet in classical Arabic literature. It is believed that the examination of ‘Ulayya’s poetic productivity and the introduction of her poetry to the modern world will enable a better understanding of the traces left by the ancient Arab woman in the history of literature. In this context, ‘Ulayya in particular is an ideal example because of the subjects she dealt with in her poetry. A scholarly study of ‘Ulayya’s poetic legacy is intended to contribute to a better understanding of the feminine aspect of classical Arabic poetry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Being in love is a powerful emotional experience that is uniquely human; however, animal models of pair bonding provide insights into the neurobiological processes underlying love. Pair bonds are selective associations between two individuals (e.g., individuals in love) and can be studied in monogamous rodents such as prairie voles. Here, we examine pair bonds, from their evolutionary origins in mother–infant bonds, to the stages of bonding, comparing rodent and human literature. We discuss the neural circuits and neuromodulators driving bonding across species, with rodent studies providing insight into our human experiences of love. Love is a powerful emotional experience that is rooted in ancient neurobiological processes shared with other species that pair bond. Considerable insights have been gained into the neural mechanisms driving the evolutionary antecedents of love by studies in animal models of pair bonding, particularly in monogamous species such as prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster). Here, we provide an overview of the roles of oxytocin, dopamine, and vasopressin in regulating neural circuits responsible for generating bonds in animals and humans alike. We begin with the evolutionary origins of bonding in mother–infant relationships and then examine the neurobiological underpinnings of each stage of bonding. Oxytocin and dopamine interact to link the neural representation of partner stimuli with the social reward of courtship and mating to create a nurturing bond between individuals. Vasopressin facilitates mate-guarding behaviors, potentially related to the human experience of jealousy. We further discuss the psychological and physiological stress following partner separation and their adaptive function, as well as evidence of the positive health outcomes associated with being pair-bonded based on both animal and human studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lady Mary Wroth (1587-1653) was an English noblewoman and one of the significant literary figures of the English Renaissance. She is renowned for her works, namely, Love's Victory (c. 1620), The Countess of Montgomery's Urania (1621), and Pamphilia to Amphilanthus (1621). In Pamphilia to Amphilanthus, Lady Mary Wroth challenges the patriarchal ideology that excludes women both as sonneteers and lovers who are able to express their love in Petrarchan sonnet tradition. The dominant tradition centralizes the male lovers and marginalizes women as idealized silent beloveds. Thus, it transforms female characters into docile objects to be loved by their male lovers. In order to confront the misogynistic treatment of these concepts of female author and lover in the sonnet tradition, Lady Mary Wroth writes within and against the sonnet tradition and manipulates the masculine genre to insert the female voice into it. First, she assumes submissive roles the dominant tradition appropriates. She negotiates these roles and accordingly manipulates them to her own advantage. Her contestation and later manipulation of these traditional roles create opportunities to resist the oppression she faces by rewriting the disempowering tradition. Hence, she subverts the limited roles of female characters in the dynamics of sonnet tradition by employing specific strategies. In this regard, this article analyzes Lady Mary Wroth's strategies of subversion of the conventional roles for female characters in Pamphilia to Amphilanthus and explores Wroth's poetic innovations that challenge the gendered concept of the male poet in the sonnet tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores how preteen children in everyday interaction mobilize relationship categories to negotiate what counts as appropriate romantic feelings among peers. The analysis draws on ethnomethodological work on membership categorization and conversation analysis, integrated with ethnographic knowledge of children's social life. Particular attention is on how children make claims of and resist membership in a particular relationship category (that of boyfriend-girlfriend). The sequential analysis shows how category-based claims of 'liking someone' and 'being together,' indexing a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship, are responded to with resistance and denials. Categorical claims are also turned into public performances of relational pairing invoking the normative character of romantic matchmaking. The findings suggest that norms of feelings play a central role in preteen children's emotional behavior, and serve as important cultural resources for children to address their emergent concerns regarding peer group relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Differences in Northern and Southern European gender relations have historical roots that can be investigated in the regions' literature and cinema. The mating morality of romantic love facilitated the West's First Sexual Revolution of the mid-eighteenth century. The Scandinavian Modern Breakthrough, a late-nineteenth-century literary movement, used Darwinian perspectives to reveal romantic delusions and double standards. The movement's insights undergirded twentieth-century Nordic gender equality and social democratic governance. Coinciding with the Second Sexual Revolution, the film movement Comedy Italian Style (c. 1958–1979) used psychoanalytical perspectives to promote a similar cultural effect nearly a century later. Both movements contributed to the transition to our present era's demythologised morality of confluent love, which sacralises gender equality, but the Scandinavians' head start, evolutionary approach and genre choices partially explain why today's Nordic women are more empowered than their Italian counterparts. Comparing these movements offers insight into how fiction helps populations transition to new mating moralities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes a critical presentation and development of Alain Badiou's theory of romantic love, at the center of which is an understanding of the phenomenon in terms of a truth‐generating event. I discuss this notion against the more familiar ontological modes of theorizing love: as the subject's intentional attitude and as an activity of internal value. Arguing that the evental conception of love poses a preferable alternative to the former mode, my analysis focuses on its complementary relations with the latter, of which I take Stanley Cavell's theory of marriage as a representative. My further argument is concerned with the place of sexuality in the evental conception of love, compensating for what I argue to be the shortcomings of Badiou's treatment of the topic by turning to Roger Scruton's account of the immanent significance of the sexual. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a mixed‐methods approach, this study investigates forgiveness, the factors of forgiveness, and unforgivable acts, and analyzes relational and gender differences in participants' qualitative answers. Open‐ended questions were answered by 649 participants from Slovakia (532 dating, 117 married; 517 women, 132 men). Responses were analyzed qualitatively using the Consensual Qualitative Research‐Modified method, then transformed into quantitative data in order to statistically compare the groups. The results showed that dating individuals tended to see forgiveness as working on the relationship, whereas married individuals viewed forgiveness as an emotional process. Married individuals were more likely to report that shared commitments helped them to forgive. Dating partners tended to look at the situational context. Men were more likely to report that forgiveness was key to the relationship. When forgiving their partner, men focused on internal factors, whereas women needed an apology and acts of love. Infidelity was the most common unforgivable transgression. Therapists may benefit from a more nuanced understanding of forgiveness in dating and married individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We are talking about an identity/identities that change and continue to change culturally, historically and socially. When the subject is examined, romantic relationships; It can be considered as the interaction form of individuals who define themselves with the identity of femininity and masculinity. These romantic interactions in the public sphere have a quality that means much more than the feeling of closeness that both parties feel to each other. The fact that it is a process that starts and continues with close relationships in his life has brought about the need to explore the meanings that men and women ascribe to these relationships and the dynamics of these relationships in the process. The dynamics of initiating the relationship are based on mutual representation of the parties to each other and interpretation of the represented meaning. For this reason, the meanings at the beginning of the relationship are the most important critical stage in the beginning of the relationship. For this reason, romantic relationships are not a concept that can be explained only through the identity of masculinity or femininity. It is shaped by the different dynamics that form it. In this study, it is aimed to show that romantic relationships are a subject that should be examined with various dynamics. The research was designed as a qualitative research. The study group of the research was carried out with 12 couples (total of 24 people) who were in a romantic relationship and the interview questions prepared by the authors were directed to the participants. The analysis of the data, on the other hand, tried to discover the dynamics of romantic relationships by determining certain themes on the axis of certain interview questions. During the research, the effect of historical, cultural and social factors is clearly seen in this form of relationship. Therefore, it is necessary to look at the form of power between couples over each other in the context of romantic relationships. The main result of the research is that the love relationship is not an individual one, but a relationship of account/interest with social causes and consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Malayalam language film Kumbalangi Nights was released in 2019 and narrated the story of working-class people negotiating structures of capitalist patriarchy, encountered at moments of its crisis, which are also moments that indicate possibilities for social transformation. The trajectory of its narrative, the characters, and the tropes addressed in the film offer a new synthesis—both, of hegemonic masculinity and the kinship structure of the heteronormative family. Here, working-class lives are foregrounded in the contemporary crisis of patriarchy, accelerated by the crisis of social reproduction under neoliberal capitalism. Central to this crisis of masculinity and the bourgeois family form depicted in the film is the "crisis of care" that has been explained in recent scholarship on social reproduction. Nancy Fraser uses the expression to analyse the contradictory capitalist tendency to strain the conditions of social reproduction necessary for its own reproduction and stability. Through an analysis of the film, and the social realities of contemporary Kerala, this paper identifies the contours of this new synthesis. The film imagines a new mode of existence for subordinate masculinities, and challenges some of the ideologies of capitalist patriarchy, while continuing to valorise romantic love and its relationship to work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polyamory is an umbrella term denoting the practice of having multiple romantic and intimate relationships with the consent of everyone involved. Within a mononormative culture, becoming polyamorous may be associated with uncertainty and a feeling of being suspended. Moreover, the preferential attitude towards monogamy marginalises polyamory as indecent and corrupt, creating feelings of shame and social isolation. Our research explored the discursive construction of polyamory in Italy by identifying the strategies used to deal with such identity construction and social recognition issues. We conducted 15 semistructured interviews with people who defined themselves as polyamorous. Our discourse analysis identified a narrative that overturns the dominant hegemonic perspective; this narrative presented monogamy as a practice generating difficulties and problems and polyamory as a thoroughly satisfying and adequate relational modality. This narrative was constructed using six discursive strategies, allowing participants to achieve three discursive purposes. By naturalising polyamory and constructing it as a stable trait, participants essentialised polyamory; by providing a normative definition of polyamory and identifying with the polyamorous community, they set up the boundaries of polyamory; finally, by moralising polyamory and attributing transformative power to it, they valorised polyamory. Overall, the definition of a polyamorous order allows for the integration of polyamory into one's life, even if polyamorists remain a minority group trapped in the public liminality brought about by a mononormative culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Love Island is a reality television series structured as a dating game, where participants compete to form romantic relationships. This article puts the show in conversation with theories and philosophies of love to draw between them an idea of love as a singular moral event that is constrained by cultural imperatives. What emerges is an existential phenomenology of love in three parts: first, romantic love is framed as an opening on to moral life; then, it is argued that moral life is enacted through a love for the neighbour that constitutes and animates our being in the world; and finally, it is shown that narcissism is not straightforwardly a negative condition but a balancing force in moral life. The article concludes with reflections on what this conceptual work might offer to analyses of relationships played out on reality television. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What explains the ambition to get rich? Adam Smith is clear that commercial ambition, the passionate desire for great wealth, is not simply a desire to satisfy one's material needs. His argument on what underlies it, however, is not obvious. I review three possibilities suggested by Smith's work and the scholarly literature—vanity, the love of system, and the desire for tranquility—and conclude that none of them captures the underlying motive of commercial ambition. Instead, I argue that Smith understands commercial ambition as a misguided desire for excellence. Ambitious pursuers of wealth are driven by the desire to deserve and to enjoy recognition for their excellence, but their judgment of what is truly excellent is corrupted by the standards of a wealth-worshipping society. Instead of appealing to the moral standpoint of the impartial spectator, they construct in their minds and follow a corruptive moral guide: the wealth-worshipping spectator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Latin American & Caribbean Anthropology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

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Copyright of Österreichische Zeitschrift für Soziologie is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

A major problem within the philosophy of romantic love is that the following three claims apparently cannot be true together, even though each looks plausible: Der vorliegende Aufsatz handelt von romantischer Liebe, nicht von der Liebe zu Verwandten, zu Tieren, zu Pflanzen, zu nicht-belebten konkreten oder zu abstrakten Gegenständen.. We love people because of their lovable features. Die mit folgendem Trilemma verbundene Schwierigkeit wird prominent diskutiert in Nussbaum (1990), spielt jedoch in vielen weiteren Texten zur Philosophie der Liebe eine wichtige Rolle, beispielsweise in Kolodny (2003) und Bagley (2015). Besonders stark von dem Problem betroffen ist der bekannte Ansatz von Velleman (1999), der Liebe als moralisches Gefühl sieht und sehr in die Nähe von universalem Respekt rückt.. Lovable features can (in principle) have multiple instantiations. 3. When we love someone, the person is irreplaceable for us. If we love someone because of her lovable features, and if a second person can (in principle) have the same lovable features, then the person we love can (in principle) be replaced. I propose a solution for this problem in three steps: I start with some methodological reflections. Secondly, I discuss some proposed solutions from the literature and clarify the first two claims of the trilemma in the process. Thirdly, I present my own solution which focuses on the third claim and which is based on a distinction between a feeling of love on the one hand and a commitment of love on the other. As it turns out, all three claims can be true when interpreted with this distinction in mind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empirical work about love has primarily considered the love of one individual for another. This work uses a novel method to study estimated types of love for self and others based on passionate and companionate theory, and triangular love theory. Two hundred and fifty participants (161 females and 89 males) rated self-estimates and other's estimates (romantic partners and parents) of global love and several love types. Women self-estimated passionate love, companionate love, intimacy, and commitment more than men did. Gender differences in estimated love types for romantic partners, fathers, and mothers were not evidenced. As regards self-partner differences respondents rated their romantic partners similarly to themselves. Regarding generational differences, children assessed themselves greater in all love types than their parents, except in commitment. Passionate love and commitment significantly predicted global love for self, partners, and parents. Suggestions and limitations are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Western culture, romantic love is commonly a basis for marriage. Although it is associated with relationship satisfaction, stability, and individual well-being, many couples experience declines in romantic love. In newlyweds, specifically, changes in love predict marital outcomes. However, the biological mechanisms underlying the critical transition to marriage are unknown. Thus, for the first time, we explored the neural and genetic correlates of romantic love in newlyweds. Nineteen first-time newlyweds were scanned (with functional MRI) while viewing face images of the partner versus a familiar acquaintance, around the time of the wedding (T1) and 1 year after (T2). They also provided saliva samples for genetic analysis (AVPR1a rs3, OXTR rs53576, COMT rs4680, and DRD4-7R), and completed self-report measures of relationship quality including the Eros (romantic love) scale. We hypothesized that romantic love is a developed form of the mammalian drive to find, and keep, preferred mates; and that its maintenance is orchestrated by the brains reward system. Results showed that, at both time points, romantic love maintenance (Eros difference score: T2-T1) was associated with activation of the dopamine-rich substantia nigra in response to face images of the partner. Interactions with vasopressin, oxytocin, and dopamine genes implicated in pair-bonding (AVPR1a rs3, OXTR rs53576, COMT rs4680, and DRD4-7R) also conferred strong activation in the dopamine-rich ventral tegmental area at both time points. Consistent with work highlighting the role of sexual intimacy in relationships, romantic love maintenance showed correlations in the paracentral lobule (genital region) and cortical areas involved in sensory and cognitive processing (occipital, angular gyrus, insular cortex). These findings suggest that romantic love, and its maintenance, are orchestrated by dopamine-, vasopressin- and oxytocin-rich brain regions, as seen in humans and other monogamous animals. We also provide genetic evidence of polymorphisms associated with oxytocin, vasopressin and dopamine function that affect the propensity to sustain romantic love in early stage marriages. We conclude that romantic love maintenance is part of a broad mammalian strategy for reproduction and long-term attachment that is influenced by basic reward circuitry, complex cognitive processes, and genetic factors.

Carlos Miguel Sirvent-Ruiz,1 María de la Villa Moral-Jiménez,2 Juan Herrero,2 María Miranda-Rovés,1 Francisco J Rodríguez Díaz2 1Research and Teaching Department, Fundación Instituto Spiral, Madrid, Spain; 2Department of Psychology, University of Oviedo, Oviedo, SpainCorrespondence: Carlos Miguel Sirvent-Ruiz, Fundación Instituto Spiral, c/ Marqués de Valdeiglesias, 2, Madrid, 28004, Spain, Tel +34 985 111 111 ; +34 915 000 050, Email carlos.sirventruiz@gmail.comBackground: There is a degree of affective interdependence that is considered normal and only becomes pathological if it causes excessive suffering, both for the subject and for those close to them. Our objective was to introduce and psychometrically validate a short and effective affective dependency scale, the Affective Dependence Scale (ADS-9).Methods: We used a sample of 762 participants (clinical: emotional dependent subjects n = 212, comparison: non-emotionally-dependent addicted subjects n = 272, and general population n = 278) to assess the factor structure, the psychological construct validity and the measurement invariance for the ADS-9 by means of independent exploratory factor analyses for each sample group and subsequent multigroup confirmatory factor analyses.Results: Our results confirm that ADS-9 is a psychometrically consistent instrument, with construct and clinical validity, as well as configural, metric and scalar invariance across different sample groups (clinical, comparison and general population). A hypothesized two-dimensional structure was confirmed by means of factor analyses. Both sub-scales of this abbreviated form, Submission and Craving, showed a good agreement with the previously validated Relationships and Sentimental Dependencies Inventory (IRIDS-100).Conclusion: The ADS-9 is a brief instrument that appears to reliably detect the dependent and pathological components of affective dependence. It consists of two sub-scales, describing Submission (adaptation, accommodation, and subjugation) and Craving (imperative need for the other with the presence of disturbing states). We suggest that it is a versatile scale that may be useful for clinicians and researchers.Keywords: emotional dependence, love addiction, craving, romantic love, psychological test, submission

In this non-systematic review, we consider the sample reporting practices of 42 studies up to and including 2021 investigating the biological mechanisms of romantic love (i.e., 31 neuroimaging studies, nine endocrinological studies, one genetics study, and one combined neuroimaging and genetics study). We searched scientific databases using key terms and drew on our and other authors’ knowledge to identify studies that investigated the mechanisms associated with romantic love using neuroimaging, endocrinological, and genetic methods. Only studies with a group or entire sample experiencing romantic love were included. The aim was to collate all relevant studies and determine the comparability of studies and ability to assess the generalizability of findings. We summarize how these studies report sex/gender, age, romantic love, relationship duration/time in love, and sample descriptors. We then outline the case for promoting comparability and the ability to determine generalizability in future studies. The findings indicate a limited ability to compare studies’ samples or make an assessment of the generalizability of findings. Existing studies are not representative of the general population in a particular country or globally. We conclude by presenting ideas about how best to report sex, age, romantic love characteristics, relationship status, time in love, relationship duration, relationship satisfaction, type of unrequited love, sexual activity, cultural characteristics, socio-economic status, student status, and method-relevant descriptors. If our ideas are adopted, in part or in whole, we expect the comparability of studies to increase. Adopting our ideas will also make it easier to make an assessment of the generalizability of findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]