Romantic love has an endless number of definitions, modern psychologists see it as a strong desire for emotional union with another person, while others can see it as a feeling rather than a choice. Something that can be universally agreed on is that romantic love is one powerful human emotion. There’s no doubt that love is a strong feeling, but when romantic love is not mutual, it was once believed to cause an illness of the mind and body, classified as lovesickness. Unconsummated love was medically believed to lead to physical illness in the 19th century, while today lovesickness can be classified by more modern factors such as psychological and hormonal. The possibility that the current state of mind one is in can lead them to succumb lovesickness can be explored in the literary texts of Ivan Turgenev’s The Torrents of Spring and Nikolai Gogol’s Nevsky Prospect, using evidence from modern sources on love.

Benedict Carrey’s The Brain in Love tells his medical ideology on love and lovesickness, backing his ideas up with various studies. The chemicals dopamine and norepinephrine are released during love and attraction to another person, this being responsible for us feeling excited and euphoric around them.3 It is possible that when we are in a state of romantic attraction for one person, we could mistake those chemicals released as having the same attraction for someone else. This can be explored in The Torrents of Spring. Sanin is swooned by Gemma at first glance, and their mutual attraction for one another is evident, “Sanin rubbed on, and kept stealing glances at her. Mercy! what a beautiful creature she was”.1 When he and Gemma later confessed their mutual love, Sanin was put to the test of loyalty when meeting the beautiful Maria. While he was still in love and infatuated by Gemma, he was aware of his attraction towards Maria. Sanin was seduced by her which leads him to cheat on Gemma. He couldn’t control his desires towards Maria because of the state of love he was already in when he had met her. Sanin already had these chemicals in his brain which are responsible for the feeling’s euphoria, craving and addiction.3 So when he had met Maria, he could have mistaken the love he was feeling for Gemma, as attraction towards her instead.

When it is revealed to Gemma that Sanin was unfaithful to her, she leaves him to suffer from heartbreak, or rather even lovesickness for decades to come. He did not think about Maria, but indeed Gemma, “And not that his memory failed him, oh no! he knew only too well what followed upon that moment, but he was stifled by shame, even now, so many years after; he dreaded that feeling of self-contempt, which he knew for certain would overwhelm him, and like a torrent, flood all other feelings if he did not bid his memory be still”.1 Peter Tooheys Love, Lovesickness, and Melancholia explain how lovesickness is more related Melancholy than anything else. Sanin ended up suffering from lovesickness from his own doings. The chemicals responsible for Sanin falling in love with Gemma were also responsible for the feelings of obsession and idealization for Maria, and of despair after he had lost Gemma. In Sanin’s case, he suffered from “serious dejection due to unrequitedlove”.4 Both melancholy and lovesickness offer the same symptoms, Sanin’s love was ultimately left unfulfilled so for him “melancholy was a depressive rather than a manic illness”4, therefor leaving him lovesick.

In Nikolai Gogol’s Nevsky Prospect, Piskarev displays various actions that lead him to fall lovesick. His emotions are heightened after meeting the woman, “His senses and thoughts were on fire”.2 The state of mind he was in was a high, he was so high off the chemicals dopamine and serotonin he was essentially blinded by it. He did not see that the woman was a prostitute, he only envisioned her as who he idealized her to be. He was not in a clear state of mind, Benedict Carrey explains how when in the stage of being or falling in love, the brain is similar to one on drugs. He compares MRI images and brain scans of those who were romantically in love and those who were on a cocaine induced euphoria. This can compare to the medical ideas on lovesickness in the 19th century, the lovesick brain becomes flooded with the same chemicals serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine.3

Today, the term lovesickness is not used to refer to illness like it was in the 19th century. Lovesickness can be caused by many psychological factors, Peter Toohey’s Love, Lovesickness, and Melancholia explains this. In the literary texts The Torrents of Spring and Nevsky Prospect, lovesickness is shown in differing ways. In Sanin’s character we see symptoms of lovesickness when he realizes he regrets cheating on Gemma. With Piskarev, he goes into a depressed state after learning the woman he idealized essentially did not exist. We see Piskarev spiral into a downwards spiral, this lovesickness that he experienced could have “appeared to the common people to be melancholic”.4 Sanin was also seen as falling into despair after things ended with Gemma, and showed signs of melancholy, “Galen describes lovers as sometimes emaciated, pale, sleepless, and even feverish”.4 Sanin would stay up at night thinking of how he let Gemma go.

Both Sanin and Piskarev are automatically drawn in by Gemma and the prostitutes looks. They both are automatically swooned by first glance, “His senses and thoughts were on fire… No, it was no dream … such a wonderful life of two minutes!”.2 Sanin and Piskarev both have a lack of sleep when first enraptured by the women, “…he did not know how to get free from this darkness, this bitterness. Sleep it was useless to reckon upon; he knew he should not sleep”.1 The first signs of captivation relate to the medical idea proposed by author Benedict Carrey, when a person first shows signs of captivation the chemical level of dopamine skyrockets, “increased energy, less need for sleep or food, focused attention, and exquisite delight in the smallest details of this novel relationship”.3 This medical idea is similar to historical ideas on lovesickness, except switched around. When a person falls lovesick, they’re dopamine levels lower, resulting in a person with less energy, being in a depressed state. We see this with Piskarev when the truth about the prostitute is revealed to him, and this with Sanin when he is no longer with Gemma. In Piskarev’s case, his lovesickness got the best of him and led him to his own life. After coming to terms with the fact that his beloved was imaginary, he turned to opium to help him sleep, which was the only way he would see the lady of his dreams, “He heard that there was a means of restoring sleep- one had only to take opium”.2 Piskarev displays all common signs of depression, and past 19th century medical beliefs on lovesickness, “He did not think about anything, he even ate almost nothing, and impatiently, with a lover’s passion, waited for evening and the desired vision”.2 Piskarev did not allow his mind or heart enough time to heal. Sanin also experienced similar symptoms, not being able to sleep because of Gemma, “Never had he felt such weariness of body and of spirit. A sort of clinging repugnance, a weight of loathing closed in upon him on all sides like a dark night of autumn; and he did not know how to get free from this darkness, this bitterness. Sleep it was useless to reckon upon; he knew he should not sleep”.1 Sanin, much like Piskarev could not come to terms that he was not with his beloved. Sanin’s own mistakes were to blame, he fell lovesick for a longtime after his and Gemma’s relationship ended, “A long, long while he sat deep in thought, and taught as he was by the experience of so many years, he still could not comprehend how he could have deserted Gemma, so tenderly and passionately loved, for a woman he did not love at all….”.1 The state of mind Piskarev was in while in love with Gemma had never changed, his mistake could have been because he was so in love with her. This only further proving “the link between lovesickness, depression and melancholia [being] a vital one”.4 It is evident that both characters were not in the right state of mind after meeting the women, making their decisions irrational and leading them to succumb to lovesickness in the end.

Romantic love with Sanin and Piskarev led them to their own suffering of lovesickness in different ways, both ending up with dreadful outcomes. Sanin’s love for Gemma was left unfulfilled in the end leading him to suffer for a lifetime of lovesickness. Piskarev’s idealization of the prostitute brought lovesickness upon himself, leading him to suffering and taking his own life. The mindsets of these characters prove that love and lovesickness is caused by more psychological factors. Their love was left unfulfilled in the end, their actions prove the ties that lovesickness has to modern day known mental illnesses.

Works Cited:
1 Ivan, Turgenev. The Tourrents of Spring. 1872
2 Gogol, Nikolai. The Complete Tales of Nikolai Gogol. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1985.
3 Carey, Benedict. The Brain in Love. New York Times. 2002
4 Toohey, Peter. Love, Lovesickness and Melancholia. Illinois Classical Studies, vol. 17, no. 2, 1992, pp. 265–286. JSTOR

To all, there is a science. What is the science behind love? How are our minds affected when we are in love? Benedict Carey uses scientific studies to explain why we fall in love and the keys to making this love last in, “The Brain in Love”.

Carey starts off by telling the “Unique Brain Activity” of a person in love. A study done by Fisher shows how when a person shows first signs of captivation, the chemical level of dopamine skyrockets, “…increased energy, less need for sleep or food, focused attention, and exquisite delight in the smallest details of this novel relationship” (Carey 401). Carey is trying to tell us how this spike in dopamine levels affects us similarly as a drug would. Our mind is clouded, “This power is enough to warp judgment in otherwise sensible people” (Carey 402). Carey then follows up by telling how this leads to partners idealizing one another. Partners will make excuses for each other’s wrongs and inflate the good. This he explains to be the “pink lens effect”. He later tells us how “Some idealization may be crucial to building a longer term relationship” (Carey 402). The fact of the matter is, looking at your partner in such a positive light will only lead to more admiration for them. How you think of your partner now will affect how you see them later on. While Carey acknowledges the intoxicating state of passionate love helps couples get through the first two stages of a relationship, the pink lens effect mentioned by him earlier gets couples through stage three, “conflict, when tension and doubts about the couples future prompts arguments and soul-searching” (Carey 402). This point leads Carey on to explaining “Healthy Romanticizing”.

Using studies of a 1996 experiment, Carrey explains how idealizing your partner results in a healthier relationship in the long run. This study done by psychologists at the State University of New York at Buffalo found that “couples who were closest one year later were those who idealized each other the most. The idealizing seemed to help carry these couples through the inevitable rough spots… actually creating the relationships they wished for as romances progressed” (Carrey 402). Essentially, to be in a healthy relationship you have to fake it until you make it. You almost create the perfect person in your head, and start to believe that your partner is just that. You don’t put their flaws above their strengths. As Carrey describes this, he doesn’t make it sound as if it’s a bad thing, it just so happens to be the recipe for a happy and healthy long term relationship.

Carrey finishes off his essay telling us how a quick love with so much passion will come to an end, as a positive mindset on love will result in a lifetime of happiness. Research by Huston shows that “People who had very intense, Hollywood-type romances at the beginning were likely to have a big drop-off later on, and this often changed their view of the other’s character. (Carrey 403). Going back to the power of love on the brain, it’s like a drug. We aren’t the same when in it, we do things that make us take more risks, we sacrifice ourselves for the other person. As said by Carrey, “If passionate romance is like a drug, as the MRI images suggest, then it’s bound to lose its kick” (Carrey 403). His points go hand in hand, if a love is so intense from the start, it will eventually fade. Going back to the pink lens effect, it is crucial to not have such a strong love from the start, but rather to grow and see your partner great in all aspects for a further path of self discovery. “The highs don’t last, but neither does the withdrawal. With time the craving and pain go away and the brain returns to normal” (Carey 403). This being true in the aspect of love.

Overall, Benedict Carrey explains people’s behaviors when in love and tells us the keys to successful relationships in his essay “The Brain in Love”. His points being brought up by research and studies he has gathered. He makes valid points on the way of making a relationship last a lifetime, that being by idealizing the other person. While the effects of dopamine are increased in the first signs of falling in love, this “high” can only last so long. It quickly fades and reality sets in. Looking at the person in front of you with an optimistic eye, you and your partner are bound to have an unequivocal lifetime of joy.

In a world filled with emotion, nobody is a stranger to the feeling of love. Love is something that can’t be fought, it’s a distinct feeling that brings us joy. Whether it be the thought of living your dream life, our favorite icecream flavor, or our family and friends, we all love something in some sort of way. A thought, a thing, or a person. Romantic love however, is a bit more tricky. Romantic love is an infatuation with a person, someone you feel makes your heart full. It is no doubt that this love is a powerful feeling, but what happens when it is not reciprocated? When we feel this intense emotion for someone and we find out they don’t feel the same? Or when we fixate on someone who isn’t at all who we want them to be? It could be classified as heartbreak, or rather lovesickness. Dated back to the seventeenth century, it has been thought that unconsummated love can make a person mentally and physically ill, this being defined as lovesickness. Throughout time, the definition of lovesickness is ever changing, but one thing certain is the distraught of a person caused by unreciprocated love. In Nikolai Gogol’s Nevsky Prospect,​ Piskarev’s longing for the untrue image of the prostitute leads him to succumb to lovesickness, making him spiral into insanity.

Piskarev’s first signs of lovesickness show through his actions after meeting the beautiful woman. Off the bat, we know his first impression of her, “His senses and thoughts were on fire… No, it was no dream … such a wonderful life of two minutes!” (Gogol 254). He was almost in a euphoric state when seeing her, he was so encaptured by her beauty. Like when many people are falling in love, they don’t think about anything but that one person, Piskarev’s emotions are more heightened, having not known this woman and being automatically swooned by her was where Piskarev started to lead himself into a downfall. Piskarev is automatically enchanted by the woman’s looks, because she was so physically attractive in his eyes, his ideology was that she would be everything he wanted inside out. This was not the case, he soon came to see that she was not the woman he envisioned in his head, and he ruined himself for it.

Piskarev falling lovesick is not because of the woman’s rejection, but rather from who she turned out to be. He first fell in love with her beauty, and then the person he imagined her to be. When Piskarev followed the woman around, the conditions she lived in and the truth that she was a prostitute were revealed to him. In the end, her beauty was still there but her true self was shown, and it was not at all what Piskarev expected, making it hard for him to cope with. He didn’t want her anymore because of who she was, he wanted the woman he envisioned in his dreams, both the physical looks and the perfect pure woman. He couldn’t deal with the fact that she was so beautiful and a prostitute. He fell lovesick because he was heartbroken that he had his hopes up so high, and was essentially let down. Piskarev demonstrates lovesickness in a way that was usually portrayed in the seventeenth century.

Piskarev’s tell tale signs of lovesickness were when he had first met the woman, his lack of sleep and appetite. Later on when he realizes she is not who he had imagined, his lovesickness becomes more severe. Lovesickness was a result of unfulfilled love, and this is what Piskarev had faced. He idealized the woman too much in the beginning, so he was let down in the end. Piskarev’s first signs of captivation relate to the medical idea explained by author Benedict Carrey, that when a person first shows signs of captivation the chemical level of dopamine (a bodily chemical responsible for people feeling happiness) skyrockets, “increased energy, less need for sleep or food, focused attention, and exquisite delight in the smallest details of this novel relationship” (Carey 401). This medical idea is similar to historical ideas on lovesickness, except switched around. When a person falls lovesick, they’re dopamine levels become low, resulting in a person with less energy, being in a depressed state. Piskarev shows this high in the beginning when he is falling for the woman, and shows an ultimate low when he is no longer captivated by her. Lovesickness can be broken down into many common mental illnesses, such as depression, which is what Piskarev faced towards the end. In this case, lovesickness could be thought as an overwhelming undesirable mix of emotions that are felt when love is unfulfilled, and depression can be the mental illness triggered by it. Piskarev is so distraught by the truth of the woman, he is in “Such a state unsettled his health, and his most terrible torment was that sleep finally began to desert him entirely. Wishing to salvage this his only possession, he used every means to restore it. He heard that there was a means of restoring sleep- one had only to take opium.” (Gogol 262). Piskarev is in such a depressed state he turns to a drug to salvage the only thing that can make him happy which are his dreams. His dreams are what led to his downfall, he dreamed of the beautiful woman being the perfect person for him and the harsh reality was that she was not.

Piskarev could not come to terms with the fact that his beloved was imaginary, his lovesickness lead him to taking his own life. Piskarev was in distraught, and could not bare the truth. Benedict Carrey says, “the highs don’t last but neither does the withdrawal. The craving and pain will go away and the brain returns to normal” (Carey 403). In Piskarev’s case, he did not give himself enough time to heal. “He did not think about anything, he even ate almost nothing, and impatiently, with a lover’s passion, waited for evening and the desired vision” (Gogol 264). Here Piskarev displays one of the historically known symptoms of lovesickness, a lack of appetite. He became an insomniac and relied on drugs to help him fall asleep, so he can dream about her. Piskarev was making himself go insane, he had become so consumed in the high he experienced when making himself fall in love that he couldn’t bear the thought that it was not true, “A bloody razor lay on the floor. From his convulsively spread arms and terribly disfigured appearance, it could be concluded that his hand had not been steady and that he had suffered for a long time before his sinful soul left his body.” (Gogol 266). Piskarev was never in the right state of mind from his first encounter with the beautiful lady, and from then on. Lovesickness is much similar to heartbreak, heartbreak feels like your heart hurts because the feeling of hurt is too much. Lovesickness can lead others like Piskarev into depression and more, because the feeling of despair and grief is overpowering.

All in all, Piskarev’s idealization of the woman led him to believe she is someone who she’s not. This ultimately breaks his heart and leads him to become mentally ill, or rather known as lovesick. His lovesickness is ultimately too overwhelming for him, resulting in him committing suicide. Piskarev’s character proves that lovesickness can be caused by oneself and their interpretation of their beloved.

A wise woman once said, “somewhere between living and dreaming, there’s New York”. It wasn’t until long ago I started to really live in New York, and I can start by saying New York is what you make of it. Growing up watching ​The Carrie Diaries, Gossip Girl​ and most recently Sex and The City,​ I could only imagine the wonders New York had and still has in store for me. Being 15 and finally starting to take the subway on my own meant freedom. I was only a 30 minute ride on the 6 train to the Manhattan of my dreams, the place I had the prettiest view of from my 28th floor apartment in the Bronx. Of course I had gone there before, from seeing the Tree at Rockefeller to visiting Church on Easter Sunday, but this time the island of Manhattan was mine to explore.

Visiting my best friend’s new job at Union Square was my starting point of exploration. I was quick to see that it was very similar to where i’m from- not very Carrie Bradshaw. It felt familiar, almost like home- which is so not what we are looking for. As I would wait for her to finish her shift, I venture off to some more extravagant streets like fifth ave- thanks to google maps of course. I see the flashy shops and luxury hotels I’ve only ever seen on my t.v. screen. Mesmerizing. Day by day that summer, I would explore every inch of the East side I could think of.

What the t.v. shows and movies I’ve watched didn’t show was the agony of taking the subway day to day. I know I know, it’s not about the destination it’s about the journey- well not for a New Yorker. It’s about getting to where you need to be without having your commute interrupted. I had now been pulled into this rush that all New Yorkers seem to always be in. I would walk quickly past the guy playing the guitar which made a lovely song, or would not even turn my head for the homeless. I often have headphones in with no music playing, just so no strangers talk to me. Going to Manhattan itself became a full time job, and I was not even getting paid overtime.

My oh so Carrie life had vanished, in came my dreaded reality of school then work, work then school. My reality of living had been brought to Manhattan, my dream land.
I had never hated where I am from, I actually take great pride in it. Living in a lower class neighborhood, I never experienced growing up around what is often thought about the Bronx. The violence in the streets often associated with the Bronx was not my reality, neither was the crime surrounding it. Thankfully to my parents who immigrated here from Europe, I never grew up having to worry about if there was food on the table, and much like what Meghan Daum says in ​My Misspent Youth​, I never saw us as having less than others, “Unlike the neighbors, who had expensive wall-to-wall carpet and furniture sets from Seaman’s, we had wood floors and oriental rugs, and I grew up believing that we were superior because of it.” (10). Meghan and I share this mindset, we don’t see what we don’t have but rather what we do. This was a crucial part of my reality, and the thing is that it wasn’t a bad reality. I loved our little two bedroom apartment which was so high up we could see planes flying so close, and even see fireworks eye level in the air on the Fourth of July. I love walking into my deli ordering a bacon egg and cheese, but saying it so fast it sounds like one word ​baconeggandcheese. This is something you can only understand if you’re from my New York, not the one served to you on a shiny silver platter.

The reality is, when you start to let go of the dream life you had planned, you end up settling for something less. I was determined to not make this happen. “Some people are settling down, some people are settling and some people refuse to settle for anything less than butterflies” (Carrie Bradshaw), and that’s just what New York City once gave me. I listed all the things I find wrong about the city, like the staggering amount of homeless people who fill the streets. Something about the city that my t.v. shows had not prepared me for, was coming face to face with this problem every commute I get on. Why is it that us New Yorkers bow our heads and turn the other way to those begging for help? Is it because that’s just what we see everyone else in the subway cart doing? What I have noticed is when one person gives, a few more are likely to as well. This helped me acknowledge the truths that come along with my dream Manhattan. I let go of things that scared me about the city, like leaving work and going home at night time. Instead, I decide to pause and look at all the life around me, the lights all over showing me that in this city you never walk in the dark alone. I list things I love about the city, like the diversity and endless places to go. I started remembering why this was such a magical place to me once before.

With dreams now separated from reality, how can my New York still remain as special? It can really, it just changed its outfit a few times. My Carrie dreams of New York are alive and well, big ones too! Being faced with the reality of the city only prepared me for what’s next to come. Having a negative look on anything will soil your experience of it. I choose to look on the brighter side of it, New York is not perfect. Like everything else, she is flawed- and what a shame on us for not seeing her true beauty sooner.