An Analysis Of Helen Fisher's Anatomy Of Love

“According to Greek mythology, humans were originally created with four arms, four legs and a head with two faces. Fearing their power, Zeus split them into two separate parts, condemning them to spend their lives in search of their other halves.” This was the philosophy of the great Classical Greece philosopher, Plato, along with many others. Is this what love truly is, our other half? According to scientists, this is not true it is more than this. When many of the brightest scientists asked themselves what love truly was they came to a conclusion. This conclusion, which is often misunderstood, was vividly uncovered by the award-winning author of many subjects, Anastasia Toufexis. She elucidated this in her article Love: The Right Chemistry.

Love evolved to construct valid relationships between partners to properly and efficiently raise children. As the anthropologist and author of Anatomy of Love, Helen Fisher, depicts raising children would have been easier for early people claiming, “One parent would have a hard–and dangerous–time handling a child while foraging for food” (Toufexis 111). We did not evolve to maintain relationships; therefore, after four years many families fall apart, this is known as the “four–year itch”. This timeframe was long enough to raise a child and it still occurs to this day, and the four years can reoccur if a couple has another child. That is why most marriages divorce after about four years. Fisher concludes, though, the “four–year itch” was useful it created greater genetic variation and higher population as most men and women changed partners after this

A “love map” documents features and characteristics from childhood till we meet our ideal partner. Which is why Walsh, a psychobiologist at Boise State University, believes “Nature has wired us for one special person” (Toufexis 114). There are certain traits that are favored by most maps; such as prime childbearing ages, to being a great provider as well as a father–figure. What triggers the rush of chemicals throughout our body to how we choose and used to choose our companions; it would not be possible without a “love