Our speaker this past Sunday afternoon was Dr. Harvey Joanning of Fairhope, Emeritus Professor of Human Development and the Family, Iowa State University. Dr. Joanning trained in counseling with a specialization in marriage and family therapy and received his doctorate from the University of Iowa in 1973. He also has training and experience in life and earth sciences. His specializations include marriage and family therapy, sex therapy, brain science, Alzheimer’s disease, theories and philosophy of science, and research methodology.

After our lunch of sandwiches, he presented his ongoing scientific study, “The Brain in Love, The Neurology of Intimate Behavior." Dr. Joanning writes that "Falling in love and attempting to stay in love is a time honored human tradition. Why we are driven to be in love, and how we behave during the process has been the subject of endless poems, songs and stories."

"The advent of modern brain imaging technology and continuing research regarding the functioning of the human body has laid the ground work for this paper; a theoretical model of how we fall in love, stay in love, parent children, and lose a close partner though divorce or death. The Neurobiological Model of Love (NBML) focuses on biological processes that drive our intimate behavior."

Dr. Joanning was a fascinating speaker and an interesting person. In addition to his research interests, he is a life long distance runner, having logged more than 50,000 miles, as well as a singer, ballroom dancer, wine lover, and avid traveler. To this day, he owns a farm in Iowa and still knows how to milk a cow!