Mental Illness In Beauty And The Beast

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There is a force stronger than anger. It’s true. It’s stronger that pain and fear. It’s stronger than hate or anxiety. It drives the human population. It is the reason the human race has made it this far. That force is love. Love is a mental illness because some of the same biological processes occur in common mental illnesses as love; authors have described love as a sickness for generations; and it is often used in fairytales when the mentally ill fall in love; allowing for the view that love is a mental illness as demonstrated in Beauty and the Beast. According to the Foundation for Medical Education and Research in 2016 “Mental illness refers to a wide range of mental health conditions - disorders that affect mood, thinking and behavior.” …show more content…
“On the surface, the young and beautiful Belle is imprisoned by the monstrous beast and rather quickly comes to love him as he gradually begins to go from captor to protector, friend, and then finally theoretical lover”(Moviefone 2012). This is a prime example of “Stockholm Syndrome” because she falls in love with her kidnapper (Moviefone 2012). According to the author of the article “Moviefone: Beauty and the Beast”, the movie Beauty and the Beast should have been named Stockholm Syndrome: The Movie. This is an actually pretty common subtopic for a lot of fairy …show more content…
There is one account of love as a sickness documented by the physician Erasistratus. “In a case description,the physician Erasistratus is called to the bedside of Prince Antiochus...On examination, the prince is weak, emaciated, and near death, and no one understands why. Erasistratus ...realizes that the prince’s pulse quickens and he becomes flushed when his stepmother Stratonice enters the room. Erasistratus realizes that Antiochus is suffering from lovesickness, and tells King Seleucus, who gives his wife to his son” (Dzaja 2008). “Since the dawn of civilization, poets have described love as a kind of madness - and historically, the medical profession has endorsed a similar view” (Frank 2004). The medical field has had some cases that can back the statement that love is an illness.
There are symptoms of love. Love “makes you feel less inhibited, fearful, and anxious, and more aggressive and boastful-and so does oxytocin, the love hormone” (CNN 2016). It can also have more physical effects. “Being in love can have side effects like sweaty palms and a faster heart rate”(CNN 2016).“Love can also cause stress and contract your blood vessels.”(CNN 2016). If you lose the person you are in love with somehow, you can actually die of “stress-induced cardiomyopathy”.(CNN 2016).