What does the heart really have to do with love?

Question

Why do we say "they broke my heart" and the like, when it's your brain that deals with emotions?

Answer 1

The ancients considered the heart the center of both emotion and intelligence. The connection between the heart and emotions is derived from that early false belief. Incidentally, that belief left them with the problem of what the purpose of the brain might be. A common theory was that the brain was a cooling mechanism for the blood.

Answer 2

Pope John Paul II dedicated the world to the admirable heart in 1994. Since then, leading scientists have examined the relationship between love and the heart. In 2005, the World Health Organization released their findings: "Sociologically, the heart is an emotional* center. Spiritually, the heart maintains our social identity. Physically, the heart functions as a vital tissue that transfers 'Helper-T-Cells' from the liver to the small intestine." WHO also found that love is associated with chemical romances in the brain.

*WHO's definition of emotional: (1) any act of expression that does not violate a society's norms (2) failing to accept deviance in a figurative sense (3) bending a formal, yet external, rule

Answer 3

I'm not sure I've ever been in "love", but I have certainly felt infactuation. I've got to say, I don't feel the effects of infactuation on my heart, I feel it somewhere else...

I do, however, feel like my guts are wrenching when I'm mad about a person. I do not know where this cultural idea of the heart being the epicentre of love comes from, perhaps someone years back felt the same feeling I do; but realised that drawing a slab of guts on the front of a card does'nt quite hold the same sentiment as a heart on the front of a valentines day card. Maybe next year I'll give a more accurate physioloigcal representation of how how I'm actually feeling, and draw my stomach and small intestines pulverised on my valentinesday cards.

The heart does increase it's beating rate when in love; but I don't think that's why it's chosen as a symbol of love. I guess, the symbol just stuck. It's more of a sociology question than anything else. If someone hears a phrase, one that impresses them with its aptness, they'll incorperate the phrase into their own vocabulary. Then this phrase spreads.

Answer 4

I honestly believe someone could die from a broken heart but being on a mor realistic side, even though ur brain deals with emotions.....its ur heart that takes the biggest strain of it all. Depression, anxieties, can in some way all lead to the health of the heart.

Answer 5

The emotion of love is a combination of things. Sense, smell, (pheromones), physical attraction, respect in both a intellectual way and sometimes because the person appears to be a good person. But, the heart is a reaction to the attraction. When you get the feeling of liking someone. It makes your metabolism speed up, heart beats faster and that is why we think Love & Heart are connected. My opinion anyway.

Answer 6

The heart has nothing to do with love. If you replace a person's heart their feelings will not change about anyone, but if you replace that brain then your feelings would totally change. Love has to do with the brain and not the heart.

Answer 7

My best guess would be because when strong emotions are being processed, the brain speeds up the heart to increase bloodflow. And because we feel the heart working and not our brain, we associate the feelings with the heart.

Answer 8

The heart does not have anything to do with Love
the thing that connect to Love is the Mind, get it right i said the ,MIND.

we are just made up of Mind and body, so when explaining LOVE. it has been a global mistake to take the heart as the Mind. the person that is in LOVE fell in Love with his spirit/MInd not with his heart, which its funciton is to pump blood, while the mind control our total attitude and feeling.

If we are going to use the heart to be the part of the body that link of LOVE, tell me what the hand is linking to? the leg, the nose, the eye and the rest of them...?

the real idea is that the Heart have nothing to do with our loving or not loving.

thanks and God Bless US.

Answer 9

Well, the heart really doesn't have anything to do with love, but when someone falls in love as you may know, your heart really beats faster and has a queasy feeling in it. When someone breaks up with you, your heart feels like it's falling and has a disappointing feeling in it. That is where the concept of "you broke my heart" came from.

Answer 10

The heart was considered the seat of emotions