Lovestruck

[1] While being lovestruck has historically been viewed as a short-lived mental illness brought on by the intense changes associated with romantic love, this view has been out of favor since the humoral model was abandoned, and since the advent of modern scientific psychiatry.

Other sources, such as Tristram Shandy, describe the process by referring to it as the act of being shot with a gun: "I am in love with Mrs Wadman, quoth my uncle Toby – She has left a ball here – added my uncle Toby – pointing to his breast".

"[3] Half a century later, in 1971, Hans Loewald took up the theme, comparing being in analysis "to the passions and conflicts stirred up anew in the state of being in love which, from the point of view of the ordinary order and emotional tenor and discipline of life, feels like an illness, with all its deliciousness and pain".

[4] A 2005 article by Frank Tallis suggested that being utterly romantically lovestruck should be taken more seriously by professionals.

[7] Brain-scan investigations of individuals who professed to be "truly, madly, deeply" in love showed activity in several structures in common with the neuroanatomy of obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), for example, the anterior cingulate cortex and caudate nucleus.