After Love: Romantic Heartbreak, Emotions and Embodiment in Britain c. 1750-1900

我们都认识到浪漫爱情带来的兴奋、快乐和舒适，但当爱情出了问题会发生什么呢？浪漫的拒绝、不忠、离婚或爱人去世之后会发生什么？浪漫心碎带来的极度悲伤是人类所能忍受的最强烈的情感体验之一，我们大多数人在生命中的某个时刻都会经历这种体验。它是现代心理健康危机的中心，浪漫关系的破裂是人们向心理健康慈善机构寻求帮助的主要原因，也是无家可归和自杀的主要原因。然而，尽管它无处不在，我们对浪漫心碎的真正理解有多深呢？历史能告诉我们什么最有效的治愈方法？一颗破碎的心所带来的可怜的痛苦不仅仅是简单的修辞——它是一种发自内心的精神和身体体验，会对身体产生非常真实的影响。为一段感情的结束而悲伤的人容易患高血压、血栓和心律失常。刚刚失去伴侣的人更容易出现心脏病等健康问题，女性尤其容易患上takotsubo心肌病（“心碎综合症”），这种病会导致压力荷尔蒙激增，导致胸痛和呼吸短促。在失去亲人后的几周或几个月里，“丧偶效应”意味着男性和女性更有可能因免疫系统受到抑制和极度压力而死亡。然而，浪漫关系结束后特有的悲伤并不是静止不变的，而是在现代发生了重大变化。在18世纪，心碎的人容易情绪低落、神经紊乱、脉搏减弱和记忆力受损。他们的悲伤被比作心脏周围绷紧的绳索，心脏可能会因他们的痛苦而瘫痪。如果他们的悲伤特别强烈，或者持续很长一段时间，病人就会被认为容易患上从肺结核到癌症和精神错乱等一系列疾病。在19世纪，我们情绪的来源发生了变化，因为科学家们开始优先考虑大脑而不是心脏作为情感的来源。但是情感在本质上仍然是物质的，强烈的情感，如爱和悲伤，能够撕裂或阻止心脏死亡。就像失恋的经历随着时间的推移而改变一样，我们对待失恋的方式也在改变，我们为了治愈失恋而采取的仪式也在改变。该项目进一步推动了UKRI改善国家健康和福祉的战略目标，即通过我们如何讨论并从破碎的心的悲伤中恢复过来。鉴于COVID-19大流行加剧了当前的精神卫生紧急情况，这一点从未像现在这样紧迫。该项目将建立一个新的跨学科研究网络，研究浪漫的心碎，并产生三个主要成果：1。学术专著《爱之后：1750-1900年英国的浪漫心碎、情感和体现》。“破碎的心与破碎的身体”群展。3. 一个项目网站，展示了与来自新研究网络的专家“对话”的视频，以及展览的数字版本。展览将为以下公众活动提供场地：由牛津郡心理健康服务中心领导的艺术和手工艺项目。来自新研究网络的专家的谈话计划。由艺术家领导的工作坊，让公众创作心碎的“身体地图”。4. 快闪式诗歌药房为破碎的心灵提供诗歌疗法。该项目将以一个跨学科研讨会结束，提供一个重要的公共论坛，讨论过去和现在的浪漫心碎的精神和身体现实，以及恢复我们健康和幸福的最佳途径。

We all recognise the excitement, joy, and comfort which accompany romantic love, but what happens when love goes wrong? What follows romantic rejection, infidelity, divorce, or the death of a beloved? The extreme grief of romantic heartbreak is one of the most powerful emotional experiences that human beings endure, one which most of us will experience at some point in our lives. It sits at the centre of the modern mental health crisis, with the breakdown of romantic relationships a key driver of people seeking help from mental health charities, and a leading cause of both homelessness and suicide. Yet for all its ubiquity, how far do we really understand what romantic heartbreak is? And what can history teach us about the most effective ways to heal?The abject misery of a broken heart is more than simply rhetorical - it is a visceral mental and physical experience with very real bodily consequences. Individuals mourning the end of a romantic relationship are liable to high blood pressure, blood clots, and a disturbed heart rhythm. People who have recently lost their partners are more likely to suffer health problems such as heart attacks, with women especially vulnerable to developing takotsubo cardiomyopathy ('broken heart syndrome'), where a surge of stress hormones causes chest pains and shortness of breath. In the weeks and months following bereavement, the 'Widowhood Effect' means that men and women are considerably more likely to die due to the suppression of their immune systems and experience of extreme stress.Yet the distinctive grief which follows the end of romantic relationships is not static or unchanging, but has evolved significantly over the modern era. During the eighteenth century, individuals suffering from a broken heart were vulnerable to low spirits, disturbed nerves, a weakened pulse, and impaired memory. Their grief was likened to cords tightening around the heart, which could be paralysed by their suffering. If their sorrow was especially violent, or continued over a long period of time, patients were thought to be liable to a host of conditions from phthisis to cancer and insanity. During the nineteenth century, the source of our emotions changed, as scientists came to prioritise the brain rather than the heart as the locus of feeling. But feelings still remained firmly corporeal in nature, with violent passions such as love and grief able to tear or stop the heart dead. Just as the experience of romantic heartbreak has changed over time, so have the ways in which we treat it, and the rituals we turn to in order to heal.The project furthers UKRI's strategic goal to improve the nation's health and wellbeing, namely through how we discuss and recover from the grief of a broken heart. This has never been more pressing, given the current mental health emergency exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The project will establish a new interdisciplinary research network for studying romantic heartbreak, and produce three main outputs:1. An academic monograph, After Love: Romantic Heartbreak, Emotions and Embodiment in Britain, c. 1750-1900.2. A group exhibition on 'Broken Hearts & Broken Bodies'. 3. A project website, featuring videos 'in conversation' with experts from the new research network, and digital version of the exhibition.The exhibition will provide the setting for the following public events:1. An art and crafting project led by the Oxfordshire Mind Wellbeing Service.2. A programme of talks by experts from the new research network.3. Artist-led workshops where members of the public create 'body maps' of heartbreak. 4. A pop-up Poetry Pharmacy dispensing poetic remedies for broken hearts. The project will conclude with a cross-disciplinary symposium to provide a critical public forum in which to discuss the mental and physical reality of romantic heartbreak past and present, and the best routes to restoring our health and wellbeing.