The Biology of Love

The Biology of Love by Arthur Janov (2000). Amherst, NY: Prometheus. 364 pages. ISBN: 1573928291. Love, argues Janov in The Biology of Love, is a neurochemical event. Love consists of specific hormones and is embodied in specific brain structures. Love begins in the womb, literally shapes our brains, and determines how we think, feel and act throughout life. Love determines the state of our health and the length of our lives. Womblife, for Janov, is critical to the development of personality, mental health and illness, and sexual orientation. Love and affection during this early critical period help the nervous system to develop properly, and to produce serotonin and other repressive brain hormones. The "love imprint" allows for proper development in utero, which radiates positively throughout our lives. While acknowledging that there are genetic and environmental factors, Janov focuses on the negative biological factors that are imprinted upon the fetus. The absence of love adversely affects the nervous and hormonal systems, leaving a "toxic brain environment" that is less able to effect repression (those familiar with Janov's earlier writings may be surprised at this late praise for the biology of repression). Janov insists that homosexuality, schizophrenia, and Alzheimer's are among the myriad of afflictions that originate in the womb. Maternal stress, intrauterine trauma, alcohol and tranquilizers act as teratogens that alter fetal biology-due in part to the intrauterine levels of serotonin and dopamine-and to predispose to later mental illness. So what are the particular biological structures and mechanisms of love? The right cerebral hemisphere, insists Janov, is "the hemisphere of love." The limbic system is responsible for processing and organizing emotion; the hippocampus contains the history of feeling while the amygdala, the focal point of raw emotion, allows us to process and feel feelings. And what about the "hormones of love?" Oxytocin is the main ingredient in maternal behavior, attachment and bonding; it calms, helps repress pain and anxiety, and allows men to sustain long-term monogamous relationships. Vasopressin, involved in arousal and aggression, promotes paternal feelings and social bonding. Serotonin, a blocking agent, aids in the inhibition of anxiety and the repression of pain; it produces comfort and satisfaction, and helps keep imprinted impulses in check. Dopamine, an excitatory "feel good" chemical, is said to rise in response to physical affection; it makes us alert, keeps us vigilant, and produces pleasure. Prolactin contributes to maternal feelings. Not surprisingly, The Biology of Love is also about primal therapy. The goal of the therapy is "pleasure, contentment, and a good life," all of which result from making the unconscious conscious. Janov still uses darkened, padded therapy offices. But he refuses to describe his techniques, claiming that they take six years to learn and that "making them public runs the risk of abuse." He claims that he now measures all patients' vital signs before and after every session (although he fails to specify which vital signs). And Janov continues to praise Freud's mechanistic "hydraulic model" of mental and sexual energy, to denigrate dreams and, with less emphasis on curing neurosis, concedes that "reliving normalizes" ("normalization" is the process by which physiological parameters, skewed by primal pain to extreme highs and lows, become more moderate). One surprise, though, is the absolute omission of "brain maps," the celebrated centerpiece of his last book (Janov, 1996). Proper primal therapy, instructs Janov, takes time. …