Hey tnthomas,

This is a subject that people rarely talk about but at some level everyone has experienced. Here's my take on it.

I'd never heard of the term limerence but I have endured it. And it is a time consuming, exhausting, ecstatic, painful business. For me the object of my unrequited love was the last thing I thought of at night and the first thing I thought of in the morning. I used to sit on my windowsill just to watch her car drive by!!

The Greeks described the many different types of love,

agape altruistic love, in Latin caritas which gives us our word charity

ludus the playful affection of children and casual lovers

pragma the understanding that exists between an established couple

storge the love that grows between comrades in arms, often depicted in police dramas

mania obsession, often allied with eros sexual passion, the one that corresponds with limerence.

All of the loves of the Greeks are positive connections and bring a sense of self worth except mania or limerence. Sopholcles welcomed old age as a release from the 'tyranny' of sexual desire. As I get older, I'm not sure it works like that, however the Greeks placed friendship between equals at the summit of emotional life.

For me the greatest example of limerence on screen is the Hitchcock Film Vertigo.