Limerence is a state of mind which results from romantic feelings for another person, and typically includes intrusive, melancholic thoughts, or tragic concerns for the object of one's affection as well as a desire to form or maintain a relationship with the object of love and to have one's feelings reciprocated.
PsychologistDorothy Tennov coined the term "limerence" as an alteration of the word "amorance" with no other etymology[1] to describe a concept that had grown out of her work in the mid-1960s, when she interviewed over 500 people on the topic of love.[2] In her book Love and Limerence, she writes that "to be in a state of limerence is to feel what is usually termed 'being in love.'"[3] She coined the term to distinguish between this and other less-overwhelming emotions[4] and to avoid implying that people who do not experience it cannot experience love.[5]
Anthropologist and author Helen Fisher has written that data collection on romantic attraction started with Love and Limerence, with Tennov collecting survey results, diaries, and other personal accounts.[21] Fisher (who knew Tennov[22] and corresponded with her)[23] has commented that Tennov's concept had a sad component to it.[22]
Limerence is associated with dopamine reward circuits in the brain.[10][24][25][8][20] A long-running theory compared intrusive thinking associated with romantic love (and limerence) to obsessive-compulsive disorder[13] with a hypothesis that this is related to lowered serotonin levels in the brain,[23] but the experimental evidence is ambiguous.[12]
^ ab"Will limerence take the place of love?". The Observer. 11 September 1977. One of the most illuminating sessions was when Dorothy Tennov [...] described her attempts to find a suitable term for 'romantic love.' [...] 'I first used the term "amorance" then changed it back to "limerence,"' she told her audience. 'It has no roots whatsoever. It looks nice. It works well in French. Take it from me it has no etymology whatsoever.'