MANDATORY EROTICA of course might lead – directly – to so many things, John Money’s lovemap not the least promising. Money’s Sex Errors of the Body requires no explanation; the lovemap itself “a developmental representation or template in the mind and in the brain depicting the idealized lover and the idealized program of sexual and erotic activity projected in imagery or actually engaged in with that lover.” One can – and should – try this at home. The term itself, we learn, was introduced in “Pairbonding and Limerence,” the latter being a state to be in, if you know what I mean (AITYD). And, if there is any doubt that, despite its 1000000-word dominance, English is incomplete in certain key subjects, other-language words for intense romantic desire include paixonite (portuguese, naturally) and Verliebtheit (Deutsche).
Limerence itself leads to (well, for starters, parataxic distortion (a phenomenon worth contemplating) and erotomania [and stalking]):
(1) crystallization (making diamonds from salt…), a term whose origin lies in salt mines near Salzburg (such easy work, e*sequitrism, not to have to make things up), and which refers to the process of perfecting one’s Object in one’s mind, as in minimizing flaws and magnifying merits (e*sequiturs has already covered the Oneida Perfectionists in Seq 1 of the original e*sequiturs – heartily worth reredeing).
(2) the propinquity effect (and proxemics), the mere exposure effect and the entire raft of social phenomena associated with interpersonal attraction, including similarity, complementarity, social exhange calculus (cunning, these humans) and scientific views of love (OK! But let’s get one thing clear: you can have your oxytocin as long as I can have incarnate flesh) (your e*sequitrist a mere documentarist of the goings-on of Wikipedians, et al.), including Nerve Growth Factor, limbic resonance, the triune brain (and the R(is for reptile)-complex) (please, don’t get me going) and affective neuroscience, the latter highly useful if one wishes to understand the small matter (or plumb the pelagic depths) of human emotions.
and
(3) lovesickness, “a short-lived mental illness brought on by the intense changes associated with love.” While the unrequited e*sequitrist (see Petit Soubresaut de Mon Cœur for amplification) could expatiate on this subject, being in too much present pain, I must needs move on (the final act of Elayne, the Fair Maid of Astolat, shall speak for me), observing in passing “the interwoven nature of sexuality and life force.”
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Enhance your mind
As always, you are invited to rede the original e*sequiturs at http://www.esequiturs.com.
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