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An Introduction to Lovesickness in History

LOVESICK adj.

 "1. Overwhelmed by (esp. unrequited or unfulfilled) love; languishing for or with love.

 2. Resulting from or displaying evidence of lovesickness."¹

Throughout history, philosophers, anatomists, and writers have looked at the connections between love and the physiological effects on the human body.

In the medieval period and the renaissance, Lovesickness is subsumed in cultures as "a complex pattern of notions concerning the humours, love, the diseased imagination, and the pathological vulnerabilities of the body due to love."² 

Lovesickness was a real malady in which physicians spent much of their time focused on researching symptoms and treatments. These range from physical to psychological sypmtoms and treatments. 

1. "lovesick, adj.". OED Online. March 2023. Oxford University Press. https://0-www-oed-com.catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/view/Entry/110618?redirectedFrom=lovesick (accessed April 22, 2023).
2. Ciavolella and Beecher, Eros and Anteros: The Medical Traditions of Love in the Renaissance, 7.
Lovesickness as a Malady