Monday, August 2, 1999 Published at 13:22 GMT 14:22 UK

Crazy little thing called love?

Love and obsession are two entirely different things. Love is that enviable state that knows no envy or vanity. Love is more than an emotion; it is the substance of our being!

Deepa Pant, Kuwait

Cannot falling in love drive you just as mad?

Laura Willoughby, UK

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The Vote:

Does falling in love drive you mad?

            Yes (     )                      No (     )

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The Background:

Can't eat, can't sleep, can't stop grinning like a Cheshire cat, can't stop thinking about that certain someone - classic symptoms of love? Well actually, you could be going mad.

An Italian researcher has found that people in the first flush of love have a lot in common with sufferers of obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).

People with OCD and people in love both get fixated with things and both have very low levels of the feel-good chemical Serotonin - which has a soothing effect on the brain.

The research published in the New Scientist has received mixed reactions in the science community, but Thomas lnsel, of Emory University, thinks it's about time failing in love was studied as a relevant human emotion.

"Any of us who have fallen in love know that this is a profoundly biological process. Now somebody's actually trying to understand how," he said.

Do you think falling head over heels for someone sends you a bit crazy? Have you spent hours on end fantasizing about your latest hot romance, when you should be getting on with something else? Do you think love and obsession are the same thing? Send us your views and experiences.

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YOUR REACTION:

"To be wise and to be in love is scarcely granted even to a god." Latin proverb

Kirk O'Connor, UK

YES!!! Falling in love drives you totally crazy... I've fallen in love with a beautiful creature... and I don't know where he came from... the only way l can describe him is as a bronzed Adonis... whenever I look into his eyes... I just melt...

WW, UK

I cannot believe that someone actually funded this project. There are so many worthwhile causes that go unnoticed, so we can examine another superficial aspect of our lives. Love is not a disease that needs to be cured or avoided. If they have all this money to throw away maybe they should look at it from another angle... Why do people allow themselves to fall out of love? Are they mad? If you ask me, those are the ones that need help!

Bonnie, USA

I am so gob-smacked by the BBC putting something up that equates having obsessive compulsive disorder with 'being mad'. That is certainly discrimination! There are a whole lot of us out here with OCD and I can assure you we ain't mad. Having OCD is not the same as 'being obsessed' about a person - and we certainly aren't like stalkers. Like being in love? This scientist needs HIS head examined I am afraid.

People who are depressed (is this like love?) also have problems with serotonin levels - serotonin is associated with many problems, with emotions. This theory is equivalent to saying being in love must be the same as heart disease because it affects your heart beat! Leaving OCD out of this, yes, there are aspects of falling in love, sometimes, that are similar to temporary insanity.

It depends how it takes you - falling in love is different for different people and their behavior varies greatly. Some ways of falling in love seem like insanity and that I believe is why the ancient Greeks regarded the experience as being 'possessed' by Aphrodite. It can be a divine experience of possession, of course. Or it can make you mad.

Imogen Woolf, UK

I can't believe that this research is being funded. What's the point? Love is a wonderful emotion and to study it takes its fun away. Feelings are feelings, not research subjects!

Gareth Hagger-Johnson, UK

http://newsl.this.bbc.co.uk/ht/english/talking_ point/newsid_40/000/40/080.asp

In "I can not believe that someone actually funded this project" (Bonnie, USA), ACTUALLY means: 

(CPS) Considere e reflita sobre a charge que ironiza um fenômeno climático que ocorre no meio ambiente.

Sobre esse fenômeno é correto afirmar que

Além dos documentos escritos, é possível estudar o passado partindo de relatos orais, ou seja, de histórias contadas pelos mais velhos nas tribos indígenas e africanas, aos mais novos, de geração em geração.

Essa prática era comum entre os povos do passado que não conheciam a escrita.

Conforme o texto lido que povos eram esses?

Periodistas de a Pie

[1]    La periodista mexicana Marcela Turati nunca se

conformó con el sopor de las redacciones de los diarios del

Distrito Federal. “Prefiero la calle al escritorio”, es su leitmotiv

[4] y se repite en su conversación. En el 2001, cuando tenía 27

años, hizo un taller con Ryszard Kapucinski y desde entonces

no ha parado de contar las historias de los mexicanos ocultos

[7] detrás de la violencia de los narcos.

        A bordo de un coche, Turati atiende un celular que

parece quemarle las manos. No solo son fuentes de los altos y

[10] bajos mundos que quieren contarle historias, sino periodistas

de todo el país que buscan su consejo. Turati es fundadora de

“Periodistas de a Pie”, un colectivo de cronistas sociales que

[13] comparten técnicas de investigación y estrategias de reporteo

con el fin de elevar la calidad de su trabajo. Vivió en Buenos

Aires y pasó por la mayoría de los países de América Latina,

[16] siguiendo la huella de lo que ella llama “periodismo social”. Es

autora de varios libros y ganó el concurso de reportajes

América Latina y los Objetivos de Desarrollo del Milenio del

[19] PNUD y la agencia IPS, y el premio Lyons de la Universidad

de Harvard. Sin embargo, a pesar de todos los

reconocimientos, sigue siendo humilde y tímida y cada vez que

[22] tiene que hablar en público, se dice: “¿Por qué habré aceptado

esto?”

Internet: <www.revistaanfibia.com > (con adaptaciones).

Según las estructuras y ideas del texto anterior, juzgue lo ítem siguiente.

La conjunción “sino” en “sino periodistas de todo el país” (l.10 e 11) puede ser sustituida por pero, sin que se produzcan alteraciones gramaticales o semánticas en el texto.

É exemplar a resposta que recebi de mulher sofrida, em São Francisco, Califórnia, numa instituição católica de assistência aos pobres. Falava com dificuldade do problema que a afligia e eu, quase sem ter o que dizer, afirmei indagando: Você é norte-americana, não é? "Não. Sou pobre", respondeu como se estivesse pedindo desculpas à "norte-americanidade" por seu insucesso na vida. Me lembro de seus olhos azuis marejados de lágrimas expressando seu sofrimento e a assunção da cultura pelo seu "fracasso" no mundo. Pessoas assim fazem parte das legiões de ofendidos que não percebem a razão de ser de sua dor na perversidade do sistema social, econômico, político em que vivem, mas na sua incompetência. Enquanto sentirem assim, pensarem assim e agirem assim, reforçam o poder do sistema. Se tornam coniventes da ordem desumanizante.

FREIRE, Paulo. Pedagogia da Autonomia. Saberes necessários à prática educativa. 1996, p. 50. Disponível em: Acesso em 31 jan. 2014.

  O tipo de sentimento de fracasso vivido pela mulher em questão, segundo Marx, é um efeito da: