Love
Love behaves less like an emotion than like a drive — closer to hunger or thirst than to sadness, and in some people it is still firing after twenty years.
Full definition of Love →:: COMPARE ::
LovevsLimerence
The short answer
Limerence is the involuntary intrusive-thought state, and it has a defined arc that ends. Love is the broader motivational system that can outlast it by decades — in the 2011 scans, by more than twenty years.
Side by side
| Aspect | Love | Limerence |
|---|---|---|
| Duration | Can be decades | Months to a few years |
| Requires reciprocity | No | Feeds on uncertainty |
| Intrusive thoughts | Not defining | Defining |
| Survives ordinariness | Yes | Rarely |
What each one means
Limerence
Limerence is an involuntary state of intense romantic obsession, in which your mind fixes on one person and aches for a sign that they feel the same. It runs on uncertainty rather than intimacy — which is why it can burn hottest with someone you barely know.
Full definition of Limerence →