Capacity to Love
This morning as I walked to work I passed a couple holding hands. Maybe in their 40's; the guy had grey hair. They both had smiles on their faces. And they both had Downs Syndrome.
The first thought that came into my head was that these people lacked the mental capacity to love each other. (I'm being serious, not poking fun.) I mean, even I, sometimes, lack the capacity to see the world the way other people see it - and even though I think my relative intelligence has helped hone my feelings to really know what trust is, what love feels like, and how heartbreak consumes you, I'd be willing to bet there are people in the world who feel these emotions even more intensely than I. So if I can admit that I may not know what love is, how could they?
Did these people hold hands to touch each other, to feel that electric pulse you feel when you really love the person? Or did they simply want to keep their hands warm and were imitating those other husbands and wives who maintain physical contact during their stroll to lunch?
Then my thoughts jumped ahead of me... what if these people experience those emotions more intensely than you or I would? Perhaps grabbing his wife's hand this afternoon would be on the same grand scale of our first kiss - surely everyone remembers her first kiss. Imagine if every moment - if every kiss, hug, smile - were as intense as our firsts. Would we ever know? Perhaps they do feel this way, but lack the mental capacity to articulate these feelings to others. What we see as a simple smile on their faces would equate to our skipping, jumping, and screaming while tears of happiness ran down our cheeks, the proverbial shouting from rooftops. Who knows?
I have not done ANY research whatsoever and my thoughts are entirely speculative. What do you guys think? Do people with limited intellect experience emotions similarly, less intensely, or more intensely than we do? Or are they blindly conforming to societal influence from the media, the masses, and their mentors?
The first thought that came into my head was that these people lacked the mental capacity to love each other. (I'm being serious, not poking fun.) I mean, even I, sometimes, lack the capacity to see the world the way other people see it - and even though I think my relative intelligence has helped hone my feelings to really know what trust is, what love feels like, and how heartbreak consumes you, I'd be willing to bet there are people in the world who feel these emotions even more intensely than I. So if I can admit that I may not know what love is, how could they?
Did these people hold hands to touch each other, to feel that electric pulse you feel when you really love the person? Or did they simply want to keep their hands warm and were imitating those other husbands and wives who maintain physical contact during their stroll to lunch?
Then my thoughts jumped ahead of me... what if these people experience those emotions more intensely than you or I would? Perhaps grabbing his wife's hand this afternoon would be on the same grand scale of our first kiss - surely everyone remembers her first kiss. Imagine if every moment - if every kiss, hug, smile - were as intense as our firsts. Would we ever know? Perhaps they do feel this way, but lack the mental capacity to articulate these feelings to others. What we see as a simple smile on their faces would equate to our skipping, jumping, and screaming while tears of happiness ran down our cheeks, the proverbial shouting from rooftops. Who knows?
I have not done ANY research whatsoever and my thoughts are entirely speculative. What do you guys think? Do people with limited intellect experience emotions similarly, less intensely, or more intensely than we do? Or are they blindly conforming to societal influence from the media, the masses, and their mentors?
posted by Joe in Manhattan @ 11:01 AM
1 Comments:
well, you know I must comment... ;)
According to the National Down Syndrome Society:
[[People with Down syndrome date, socialize and form ongoing relationships. Some are beginning to marry. Women with Down syndrome can and do have children, but there is a 50 percent chance that their child will have Down syndrome. Men with Down syndrome are believed to be sterile, with only one documented instance of a male with Down syndrome who has fathered a child.]]
So apparently its very possible for people with Down Syndrome to develop strong interpersonal relationships to a point at which they fall in love and marry.
I think the issue you bring up thats most unresolved is the question of how people that don't have DS analyze emotions compared to those that have DS.
Do people that have DS respond more easily to societal pressures than people without?
We could never know...
All we can know is that we'd like to think that we (people without DS) at least have the capacity to know whether or not we're responding to a soceital pressure, or doing something out of our own 'free will'... that scentence brings up a whole other idea...
Perhaps at a certain level of intelligence, one is more able to convince one's self that their perception of free will is not perception at all... but fact.
Perhaps at lower levels of intelligence, one is less able to analyze societal pressures and influences from the past. Their perception of themselves as choosing every choice and doing as they believe they should regardless of the basis of that belief would be displayed in their every-day public behavior.
In terms of intensity... I think that emotional intensity is more of a constant. I dont think pure mental capacity enables or disables intensity of emotions. I know that strong mental capacity can supress emotional intensity... but you cant remove it.
Holding hands could be what sparks it for them... but maybe not for you?
(i think there should be a rule against comments that are longer than the original blog.... )
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