Investigacion

1have perceiv’d that to be with those I like is enough, To stop in company with the rest at evening is enough,
To be surrounded by beautiful, curious, breathing, laughing flesh is enough,

I do not ask any more delight, I swim ie it as in a sea.
There is something in staying close to men and women and looming on them, and in the contact and odor of them, that pleases the soul well,

Allthings please the soul. but these please the soul well.
Walt Whitman, “I Sing the Body Electric” (1855)

CENTRAL THEME

One of the great mysteries of psychology is the nature of the “something" that Walt Whitman extols in his masterpiece ”I Sing the Body Electric." That subtle feel- ing of social presence is almost undetectable, until it is gone. We simply feel normal and comfortable when weare in the midst of friendly company, and that same feel- ing becomes warmer when we are among those we love deeply, especially when we have not seen them for some time. We often take these feeli s, like air itself, for granted. But we should not, for when this feeling of nor- mally is suddenly disrupted by the undesired loss of a lover or the unexpected death of a loved one, we find ourselvesplunged into one of the ”deepest and most troubling emotional pains of which we, as social crea- tures, are capable. In everyday language, this feeling is called sorrow or grief, and it can verge on panic in its most intense and precipitous forms. At a less acute but more persistent level, the same essential feeling is called loneliness or sadness. This psychic pain informs us of the importance ofthose we have lost. In psychologi- cal terms, "importance" is not easy to define, but in evo- lutionary terms it is. We grieve most when we lose those in whom we have invested a great deal of genetic ef- fort(our children) or those who have helped us to thrive (our parents, friends, and relatives)—in short. when we lose those with whom we have social bonds. Obviously, the loss of a parent is mostacute when one is young and still dependent; the pain is less intense and pro- tracted when a grown child loses an elderly parent. On

the other hand, when adults lose a child, their genetic and emotional future is compromised forever, and their pain is as intense and lasting as that of a child who loses a nurturant caregiver, This type of psychic pain prob- ably emerges from a brainemotional system that evolved early in the mammalian line to inform individuals about the status of their social environment and to help cre- ate our social bonds. Neuroscience is struggling to come to terms with the nature of such intrinsic brain pro- cesses, and it is becoming clear that several ancient emotional systems control our social inclinations. In the course ofbrain evolution, the systems that mediate separation distress emerged, in part, from preexisting pain circuits. Here we will call this neural system the PANIC circuit. It becomes aroused when young animals are separated from their social support systems. We can measure this arousal in several ways, perhaps most ef- fectively by monitoring the separation calls young ani- mals emit whenleft alone in strange new places. Since opioid systems had already evolved to modulate the intensity of physical pain, it is not surprising that these same neurochemistries can soothe the pain evoked by social isolation. As mentioned in the previous chapter (see Figure 13.5), this work was initiated by the real- ization that there are remarkable similarities between thedynamics of opiate addiction and social dependence. Other systems that are important in quelling this emo- tion are oxytocin- and prolactin-based neural activities. We now know where PANIC circuit are situated in the brain, and which neurochemistries transmit the message of distress. This knowledge addresses the essence of our

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262 THE SOCIAL EMOTIONS

nature as social creatures, allowing...