Broken heart

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For other uses, see Broken heart (disambiguation).

"Heartbreak" redirects here. For the New Edition album, see Heart Break.

A broken heart (or heartbreak) is a common metaphor used to describe the intense emotional pain one feels after losing a loved one, through death, divorce, or other means as in breaking up with someone or having your partner move away.^{[citation needed]} It is an extremely old and widespread metaphor that dates back to at least the time of the Ramayana where it was commonly used .

Heartbreak is usually associated with losing a spouse or loved one, though losing a parent, child, pet, or close friend can also "break one's heart".^{[citation needed]}

1 Philosophical views
2 In popular references
3 Symptoms
4 See also
5 References
6 Extrenal Links

[edit] Philosophical views

For many people having a broken heart is something that may not be recognized at first, as it takes time for an emotional or physical loss to be fully acknowledged. As Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson states:

Human beings are not always aware of what they are feeling. Like animals, they may not be able to put their feelings into words. This does not mean they have no feelings. Sigmund Freud once speculated that a man could be in love with a woman for six years and not know it until many years later. Such a man, with all the goodwill in the world, could not have verbalized what he did not know. He had the feelings, but he did not know about them. It may sound like a paradox — paradoxical because when we think of a feeling, we think of something that we are consciously aware of feeling. As Freud put it in his 1915 article The Unconscious: 'It is surely of the essence of an emotion that we should be aware of it.' Yet it is beyond question that we can 'have' feelings that we do not know about.^[1]

In conclusion, I would like to say that we are conditioned to feelings of self through others. Not a huge philosophical or psychological breakthrough, but it works. No longer should we ask the question of why, but we should look within ourselves and find out how. How did I get this way, what exists? I have learned that attachment is a deadly weapon, a curse, a social conditioning of the “happy” people. The blundered and burdened are cursed because of them. As I look back at my freshly lit new cigarette I find happiness in the death of it because I control how many drugs I take, I control the allotted time it takes for that cigarette to die. I can put it out, and save it for later, or I can take heavy drags, enjoy, and watch it die fast. Much like human life, it must die sometime. I am the maker of my world. I am the perceiver to my reality. I make my feelings come true and I give them fallacy. No longer will I pine over that girl, whether she is “perfect” or not. I will be a rock, stay strong, and paint my own world as time allows(Art Olefir). This is a an example of a philosophical view. Mainly Nagarjuna, who said that everything is made up of nothing. It is all a web of relations that we, as human beings conjure up.

[edit] In popular references

This biblical reference highlights the issues of pain surrounding a broken heart:

Psalm 69:20 Insults have broken my heart and left me weak, I looked for sympathy but there was none; I found no one to comfort me.

In this Psalm, King David says that insults that have broken his heart, not loss or pain. It is also popular belief that rejection, major or minor, can break an individual's heart. This heartbreak can be greatly increased if rejected by a loved one or someone whom you respect.

In Shakespeare's King Lear Lear dies of a broken heart, amongst other causes, in Act 5 Scene 3:

EDGAR : He faints! My Lord, My Lord!

KENT: Break heart; I prithee, break!

In many legends and fictional tales, characters die after suffering a devastating loss (see above - King Lear). But even in reality people die from what appears to be a broken heart. Broken heart syndrome is commonly blamed for the death of a person whose spouse is already deceased, but the cause is not always so clear-cut. The condition can be triggered by sudden emotional stress caused by a traumatic breakup, the death of a loved one, or even the shock of a surprise party.^[2] Broken Heart syndrome is clinically different from a heart attack because the patient have few risk factors for heart disease and were previously healthy prior to the heart muscles weakening. The recovery rates for those suffering from "broken heart syndrome" are faster than those who had heart attacks and complete recovery to the heart was achieved within two weeks.^[3]

[edit] Symptoms

The symptoms of a "broken heart" can manifest themselves through psychological pain but for many the effect is physical. Although the experience is regarded commonly as indescribable, the following is a list of common symptoms that occur: