The Chemistry of Commitment

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Ah, courtship. A northern harrier hawk repeatedly climbs the sky and then plunges toward the earth, enticing his desired partner to join him in this expression of untrammeled power. The humpback whale casts his mysterious and ever-changing song through miles of pelagic water, hoping it will be heard somewhere in the deep. A teenage boy anoints himself with a potent mix of styrene acrylate copolymer, hydrofluorocarbon, and fragrance - he calls it body spray - before heading to the mall. Humans have the most highly developed brains on the planet. Yet when it comes to sexual attraction and mate seeking, we're no different from our butt-sniffing animal cousins. Our passions are ruled by the same neurochemicals. Norman Dog

Excerpted from pages 91 to 107 of The Chemistry of Connection by Susan Kuchinskas. Reprinted with permission by New Harbinger Publications, Inc., NewHarbinger.com Where to Find Oxytocin You can't buy it. But you can make it yourself. Gay and Lesbian Mating In gay relationships, neurochemistry may help lovers' physiological states become more resonant. Related Stories: The Chemistry of Connection, Susan Kuchinskas, oxytocin, the Coolidge Effect, G. Bermant, D. F. Lott, dopamine, vasopressin, Larry Young, Zuoxin Wang, Chris Fraley, Phillip Shaver, prairie voles, Peter Gray, testosterone, polyamory, monogamy, New Harbinger Publications Article Tools

But love - that's a different story. Fundamentally, we are made for deep, lifelong love for one mate. Humans are among just 3 percent or so of mammals that seem to be hardwired for monogamy.{Read On}