"We are all born for love.  It is the principle of existence, and its only 
end."  Benjamin Disraeli




"Love is an enduring emotional state characterized by:  compassion, charity, 
empathy, fairness, caring, altruism, and forgiveness."  Diogenes Bob





Ethologist Konrad Lorenz described and demonstrated a phenomenon called 
imprinting in birds.  Many birds experience a critical or sensitive period for 
imprinting which begins several hours after hatching.  During this period the 
young birds become physiologically aroused, and attempt to follow the first
 large moving object that they see.  When allowed to do so, they develop an 
irreversible bond to this object.  





Ordinarily the first large moving object that they encounter is their mother, 
and proper species identification occurs.  If, however, the young bird should 
accidentally follow a person, a dog, or a remote control toy car, for example, 
an improper identification will result. 





These sensitive periods are very short in duration, and the identifications 
they produce are permanent.  If the bird should imprint on something other 
than its own kind, these birds will always prefer to be with the object to 
which they bonded during the sensitive period.





When these birds become reproductively mature, they will be sexually 
responsive only to this object.  These identifications will remain no matter 
what corrective therapy is attempted.  If the young bird encounters no 
suitable object for imprinting during the sensitive period, they will become 
an isolate--a bird without identification, incapable of social and 
reproductive relations with its own kind.





As a child I first observed occasions of improper imprinting on the farm of my 
aunt and uncle.  On their farm my aunt and uncle raised chickens, turkeys and
 ducks.  Occasionally an accident of imprinting resulted in a turkey who 
preferred to flock with the chickens, or a chicken who thought it was a duck. 






Years later I incubated fertile duck and quail eggs and allowed the young 
birds to imprint on me.  For the rest of their lives they demonstrated a 
preference to be with people. 





Puppies and kittens must at least partially imprint upon people for them to 
become good pets.  If a dog or cat is raised to adulthood having never been 
exposed to people, it will be more difficult for them to become good human 
companions.





The effect of bonding in primates was dramatically demonstrated by the very 
famous research of psychologist Harry Harlow, et al.  Harlow provided newborn
 rhesus monkeys with two types of inanimate substitute mothers.  One 
substitute was constructed of wire with a milk bottle embedded in its chest. 
 The other was similarly constructed, but covered with soft cloth and was not 
equipped to provide milk.  





When not nursing the infant monkeys chose to spend most of their time clinging 
to the cloth-covered mother substitute, whose softness more closely resembled
 the affectionate comfort of a real mother.  This occurred despite the fact 
that only the wire substitute fulfilled their biological need for food.





However, neither of these inanimate substitute mothers provided the affection,
 security and stimulation that would normally be provided by a real mother. 
 Harlow noticed that the infant monkeys raised with these inadequate 
substitutes did not develop normally.





When placed in a social unit with other monkeys, these monkeys were sexually 
inept and social isolates.  Many were incapable of engaging in reproductive 
behavior.  If a female monkey did become pregnant, she would often reject her 
young.  And while therapy could reverse some of these adverse developmental 
effects, some developmental potential was permanently lost.





In the early part of the twentieth century, some orphanages raised human 
infants in an environment that was not that different from the experimental 
environment of Harlow's monkeys.  These institutions provided infants with 
only what they needed to survive.  They did not provide the love, affection 
and stimulation which are developmental needs of children.  





As reported separately by researchers Margaret Ribble and R. A. Spitz, these 
children experienced a high death rate.  Sometimes they appeared to die from 
the lack of the will to live.  These children experienced retarded physical 
growth, and poor development of language and of intellect.  They developed the 
symptoms of depression and were socially withdrawn.  Without loving 
intervention these adverse developmental effects became permanent.





In much of the animal kingdom there are critical or sensitive periods during 
which experience is required to permanently wire the brain in a way that will 
result in proper affiliation and socialization.  In general, the more advanced 
the animal the longer the duration of these critical periods.





This is why for Harlow's monkeys, and for the orphans observed by Ribble and 
Spitz, therapeutic intervention was somewhat effective in reversing some of the adverse developmental effects.  However, in birds the critical periods have a duration of only a few hours.  Once this time has passed, therapy will have no effect at all.






The architecture of the human brain holds the potential for high level 
intellectual, psychological and social functioning.  However, this capacity 
can only be realized if we are provided with and environment of love, 
affection, and stimulation in early life.  Such an environment results in the 
brain becoming wired in a way which is conducive to loving character and moral 
conduct.  This kind of environment maximizes the brain's potential for 
thinking and problem solving.  For people, childhood is a time in which much 
of our potential for love, as well as our intellect, become permanently wired 
into the circuits of our brains.





Love is an emotion.  Our emotions are related to motivation--what we want or 
need.  If we did not want or need anything, the emotional circuits of our 
brain would be very quiet. 





If, for example, we did not want or need money, but were given a million 
dollars, we would have no reason to become emotional about this money.  If we 
did not want or need for our car to have a windshield, we would not respond 
emotionally should someone smash it with a brick.  If parents did not want or 
need their children to arrive home safely, they would not experience anxiety 
when their children were late in arriving home.  If we did not want or need 
for our favorite team to win, there would be no emotional response to victory
or defeat.




Generally speaking, the more motivation we have the more emotional we will 
be.  Because the human brain is conducive to a myriad of wants and needs, we 
may be the most emotional of all animals.





However, we can also experience emotions when our emotional brain circuits 
become activated independent of wants and needs.  Psychologists Stanley 
Schachter and Jerome Singer demonstrated this tendency experimentally in the 
1960's.  If our emotional circuits are artificially activated, or 
spontaneously activate, we experience a subjective emotional feeling 
independent of external motivation.  We then have the tendency to look for
 something to which we can attribute this subjective feeling. 





Psychoactive drugs chemically activate our emotional circuits causing us to 
become emotionally involved in what otherwise might be unemotional 
activities.  Most psychoactive drugs affect the emotional centers of the 
brain.  This artificial activation leads us to attribute these induced 
feelings to something.





Many writers, for example, have attributed this artificial activation to some 
wonderful and insightful idea, only to examine this idea later and find it to 
be quite absurd.  Under the influence of drugs, many people think that they 
love the whole world and everyone in it.  But when the drugs are no longer 
activating their emotional circuits, this fondness disappears.





Low levels of brain chemicals, called neurotransmitters, can create depression 
which may be independent of what is actually occurring in the life of that 
person.  The person then attributes their depression to something or someone.





Some drugs, as well as malfunctions of brain circuits, create anxiety and 
panic which have no basis in the external environment.  This fear will likely 
be attributed to the places or the circumstances in which these panic attacks 
happened to occur.  Other drugs stimulate the brain to anger, which is then 
attributed to an innocent person, or to an innocuous situation.





Almost every person can show gratitude which manifests some of the qualities 
of love in response to the satisfaction of their wants and needs.  However, 
enduring feelings of compassion, charity, empathy, fairness, caring, altruism, 
and forgiveness are probably dependent on having our circuitry for love 
developed during some critical or sensitive period (or periods) in our 
maturation.  Such optimal development likely results in brain circuits of love 
which show high levels of spontaneous and continual activity.  The optimal 
development of the brain circuits for love during this/these critical period
(s) result in love becoming a personality trait.  It is like there is a 
permanent drug in our brain which predisposes us to enduring feelings of 
compassion, charity, empathy, fairness, caring, altruism, and forgiveness.  





Love is not alone in this regard.  So many brain circuits will achieve 
complete maturity and a maximum level of functioning only when proper 
experience occurs during some critical or sensitive period in our maturation.





Language, for example, develops best if experience with language occurs early 
in life.  It has long been known that when young children are exposed to a 
second language, they tend to learn the language quickly, and speak it 
fluently without accent.  If, however, one is exposed to a second language 
later in life, they require more experience to both learn the language, and to 
avoid an accent. 





If a child is born deaf they do not develop normal speech.  This happens 
because they cannot experience speech. 


However, some deafness can be corrected surgically.  If deafness is corrected 
surgically at an early age, normal speech develops.  If, however, this is done 
later in life, speech is slower in developing and is impeded.  Normal, fluent 
speech is dependent upon experience during a critical or sensitive period in 
early life.





Vision is also dependent upon experience during a critical period in our 
maturation.  If children are deprived of sight during the first few months of 
their lives, they will forever lose the chance to have their brains wired for 
normal vision.





Educators and educational psychologists have good evidence that there are 
critical periods for the development of various educational skills, such as 
reading and mathematical manipulations. This evidence indicates that the brain 
circuits involved in these skills develop best when experience begins at the 
right time.  If the necessary experience should occur later than the optimal 
time, these skills may develop, but they will not develop to the same level 
that they would have if the experience had occurred during the critical period.





In 1994 the Carnegie Foundation issued a report on the scientific research 
that demonstrates that children will not develop their complete neurological 
potential if they do not experience a loving and stimulating environment 
during the first three years of their lives.  This evidence indicates that the
 first three years of life is a critical period to maximize the learning and 
decision making capacity of the brain. 





The same is almost certainly true of the brain circuits for love.  If these 
circuits are not stimulated by some amount of love in early life, the window 
of opportunity will close and the development of these circuits will suffer 
some amount of permanent retardation.  And while love may exist in such a 
deprived person, it will not exist at the level which it could have if they 
had received the benefit of a loving environment during the critical period(s) 
in which these circuits were primed for maximum development.





Consequently, such a deprived person will have a diminished capacity to 
exhibit compassion, charity, empathy, fairness, caring, altruism, and 
forgiveness.  The quality of their life will suffer because they will be 
unable to fully experience this high quality human emotion.  They will not 
have a strong attitude of love.  They will be deficient in love as a 
personality trait.





As is characteristic of most human skills, the amount of experience needed to 
achieve maximum development in the circuitry for love probably varies from 
person to person.  Maybe because of genetic differences, some people will 
develop a strong capacity to love even if they receive very little love in 
their upbringing.  Other people will develop a weak capacity to love, even if 
they are raised in a very loving environment.  However, for most people the 
capacity to love will be closely correlated to the quality and quantity of 
love that they experienced in early life.






If we exclude philosophies based upon magic and myth, the meaning of life is 
the pleasure derived from it.  If carnal pleasure can be described as hedonism-
a, and the pleasure derived from acts of love as hedonism-b, we see that these 
two exist as something like mathematical complements.  To the extent that our 
capacity to love is developed, the good feelings provided by these brain 
circuits will guide our behavior.  To whatever degree these circuits are
incomplete in their development, hedonism-a will grow to fill this void.




 

"We are all born for love."  Hedonism-a is necessary for survival and a 
very important part of human living.  However, it may also function as compensatory motives which expand to fill the vacuum which exists when loving character is deficient.





Hedonism-a, by itself, will not provide us with progress and satisfaction in 
our living.  Love is the best rudder for the ship of humanity.  It is a human 
need, the fulfillment of which allows us to become moral and humane.  Loving 
character in mankind encourages our continued existence, and forms the basis
 for the cooperation which is essential for progress.





Love is almost a mystical concept.  I say this because we think that love 
should not be the key to happiness.  We think that money, power, fame, and the
satisfaction of lust will lead to lives of quality and contentment.  There is
 much logic which tells us that it should be this way.





But all who have pursued happiness through these have found that it was not 
that way.  These people either turned to philanthropic activity to achieve 
quality and contentment, or they never found quality and contentment.