Truly, madly deeply in love

With Valentine's Day approaching, the February edition of The Psychologist carries a feature asking whether psychologists should take lovesickness more seriously.

The article by Frank Tallis, a clinical Psychologist in London, examines historical attitudes to love and mental illness and concludes that perhaps an understanding of the close relationship between the two might help modern day clinicians in both their diagnoses and treatments.

Love has traditionally been widely associated with "madness", which is considered as significant an indicator of the authenticity of love as its depth and honesty. This link though is more than just a poetic turn of phrase and the article cites modern research suggesting that the effects of being lovesick can be described in the latest diagnostic terms - including mania, depression, and obsessive compulsive disorder.

The reassessment of lovesickness as a real phenomenon comes two hundred years after it fell out of favour with medical practitioners as a diagnosis. Prior to the 18^th Century it had for thousands of years been an accepted as a natural state of mind.

Whilst few clinical psychologists will receive referrals from GPs specifically mentioning lovesickness today, Dr Tallis claims it may in fact be an underlying problem in many, and that an understanding of the effects of love on an individual may help psychologists diagnose and treat people.

" Many people are referred for help who cannot cope with the intensity of love, have been destabilised by falling in love, or who suffer on account of their love being unrequited," says Dr Tallis.

"Although there is much modern research into the treatment of relationship and psychosexual problems, there is little dealing with the specific problems of lovesickness. Perhaps now is the time for us to take it more seriously and take a lead from those ancient clinicians who diagnosed and treated it like any other complaint".

Ref: PR717