I don’t think it’s a delusion. It’s a real feeling. No doubt chemically induced, in part. Just because the feelings may fade over time does not mean they are delusions.
A delusion would be seeing something in somebody that isn’t there. But it isn’t that simple figuring that one out. You might put your lover on a pedestal, and your lover might feel that you see him or her as someone they can never match up to. So they think you are deluded about who they are.
I would say that is part of the rose-colored glasses that oxytocin gives us. We may inevitably not see that halo around our partner, but it doesn’t seem fair to say that means you were deluded. We see the best we can, I think, and it’s hard to see straight under the influence of love’s chemistry.
I also think it’s possible to see someone with their faults—as a complete person—and to feel that kind of love. Like I say, reason and passion are running along separate railways at this point. I don’t know the lines ever get together. One might just take off wandering across the countryside and get totally separated from the other. That’s probably not good.
It’s not a delusion. It’s different way of seeing, and I would not judge it as any better or worse than other ways of seeing. It does help us make different choices in life, but again, that can be a useful way to shake your life up and learn new stuff.
I have no prejudices about how life should go. It can go any way we want it to, so long as we can get it to go that way. Calling this a delusion is an attempt to reduce its power in your life. Maybe all the sober elders tell you to be careful about that. I wouldn’t. I’d say that passion is one of the greatest things to feel in life, and you should take every opportunity you have to feel it.