Decades ago, ecstasy — yes, MDMA — was used in marriage counseling

A revival is occurring, and we sure can use it.

Photo credit: Stephan C Archetti / Keystone Features / Hulton Archive / Getty Images
  • For the first decade after it was synthesized, MDMA was used in individual and couples therapy.
  • Many therapists spoke against the criminalization of MDMA in 1985 due to the drug's therapeutic potential.
  • A revival has occurred in recent years, with the government allowing clinical trials to move forward.
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Why are people sexually attracted to cartoons? Evolution.

Nikolaas Tinbergen's concept of "supernormal stimulus" explains why humans are attracted to a heightened version of reality.

(Photo: Walt Disney Pictures)
  • According to Pornhub's annual statistics, "hentai" and "cartoons" were among the most popular categories in 2018.
  • Such pornography is a supernormal stimulus, an artificial object that triggers an animal's instinctual response more intensely than natural analogs.
  • Supernormal stimuli not only explain our heightened response to pornography, but also art, junk food, and social media.
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Researchers find how to add more "love hormone" to your relationships

A study looks at the chemistry of couples engaged in different activities.

Henri Leconte at art class. 2019. (Photo by Kelly Defina/Getty Images)
  • Leisure activities can help release more oxytocin, say researchers.
  • Oxytocin is a hormone linked to social and sexual interaction.
  • Couples who took art classes and played board games together released oxytocin.
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Love in a time of migrants: on rethinking arranged marriages

Arranged marriages and Western romantic practices have more in common than we might think.

In his book In Praise of Love (2009), the French communist philosopher Alain Badiou attacks the notion of 'risk-free love', which he sees written in the commercial language of dating services that promise their customers 'love, without falling in love.'

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Can relationship anarchy create a world without heartbreak?

Nurturing several relationships at once can empower us to build a life so rich that when we lose one love among many, we don't feel as if we've lost 'everything.'

Photo by Lucasprado Arruda on Unsplash

Can you imagine a world without heartbreak? Not without sadness, disappointment or regret – but a world without the sinking, searing, all-consuming ache of lost love. A world without heartbreak is also a world where simple acts cannot be transformed, as if by sorcery, into moments of sublime significance. Because a world without heartbreak is a world without love – isn't it?

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