Inelasticity of Love

We are never so defenseless against suffering as when we love, never so forlornly unhappy as when we have lost our love object or its love. - Sigmund Freud

Freud says it all, nothing hurts as much as getting your heart broken. We all know that overwhelming pain that you can't shake. Yet again, here's another attempt to explain something so intangible with a little empirical thinking.

Let's start off with some quick definitions any student of economics has seen:

Elastic: a slight change in price results in a sharp change in demand.

Inelastic: change in price results in a slight, if any, change in demand.

More simply put: an elastic good is something you can live without if your conditions aren't met. An inelastic good is something you need, something you have to have - no matter the price. The conditions for inelasticity include the following:

1. There are few substitutes and they are difficult to find and obtain
2. It's a necessity
3. It's unimportant how much you have to put in to obtain it
4. Little time or inclination to seek for a substitute

Ok, with that said, let's get to the point. When you first start dating someone, they're completely elastic. One little thing that irks you and your demand for them drops drastically. Or, in other words, they're out the door. But, when you start investing yourself into someone, start feeling something, inelasticity steps in:

• You know that there's no one out there just like them. (condition 1 of inelasticity)
• You need them in your life because things just don't feel right without them there. (condition 2)
• You will give all of yourself to this person. (condition 3)
• You don't want anyone else. (condition 4)

See where I'm going here? Why is losing love so hard when there are so many fish in the sea? Maybe it's because no two people are exactly the same. No one fits with you in the exact same way. The little quirky things in their personality that make you love them - that make them so perfect for you - make them completely inelastic in your life.

Yes, Freud did do enough drugs to kill a horse, but we can't argue that he's off here. Losing someone you need - someone you have to have - that hurts. Like hell.