What is love, why does it sometimes grow, and why does it sometimes die; these are questions often asked by humans today. In the Psychology of Romantic Love, a book written by psychiatrist Nathaniel Branden, these questions are answered in full detail. There were many topics in this book that interested me. What romantic love is not, the need and the desire to be loved, self-esteem and love, sex as an expression of love, and finally the longing for permanence and inevitability are topics that I researched. I chose these topics because these are the topics that I can relate to the most.
Do you really know what love is? Most human being do not. There are, for example, men and women who characterize a strong sexual attraction for each other as love. Somehow they have come to the conclusion that even though they have few interest and values in common. Incompatible personalities and temperaments is the only thing that these people share. "They are not representative of romantic love, and it amounts to setting up a straw man to treat them as they were." (Nathaniel Branden).
To love a human being is to know and love his or her person. It is commonly argued that romantic lovers manifest a strong tendency to idealize or glamorize their partners, to misperceive them. Of course this sometimes occurs. But it is not inherent the true nature of love that it must occur. "To argue that love is blind is to maintain that no real and deep affinities of a kind that inspire love can exist between persons."(Nathaniel Brandon) This argument runs counter to the experience of men and women who do see the partner's weaknesses as well as strengths and who do love passionately. .
Most couples do in fact suffer feelings of disenchantment shortly after marriage; the experience of romantic love must be a delusion in this case. Yet many people experience this somewhere along the line in their careers. Others experience in their children.
What is Love? ... Yeah, exactly what is love? ... Instead of saying what love is to them, they express it by showing affection. ... Love can be what ever a person wants it to be. ... This is a good way to define what love can be and what it actually means in life. ...
The Bible advocates this type of love: "Love thy neighbour." ... Another love is family devotion (Storge) which is a much stronger love than agape; it is an unconditional love for one's family. ... A category of storge love is friendship which is (Philia) a platonic companionate love, a solid peaceful love between close friends. ... When a person states that he/she is "in love," he/she is referring to the ultimate love: romantic love (Eros). ... (2) Ludis, a self-centered playful love, where love is treated as a game to be won. ...
One might ask, "How is love expressed? ... Every one is different and that is what makes love so unique. ... What makes a gift a language of love is the heart behind it. ... If everyone understood their love language, people would learn how to better love others. For every one is different and that is what makes love so unique to every one. ...
Love is the desire for the soul. ... Confused from what love really is, they immediately attract on each other. ... Lastly, Romeo and Juliet loved the idea of "being in love"" instead of truly loving the actual person. ... Just as lust is about focusing on the physical aspect of love, this act of over idealization focusing only on what the lover wants to see instead of what it actually is. It is clear that the type of "love"" that Romeo and Juliet are experiencing is nothing but lust and an illusion of what appears to be love. ...
Throughout history Love has been a topic of conversation. Plato's Symposium provides us with many different views and theories about Love. Socrates and his intellectual partners discuss what Love is and twist it's meaning in every possible way. ... After describing history of Love, he proposes that each person is half of a complete love relationship, a whole. ... Or, equally so, if a man came to a man to seek Love; if Love is not found they might be satisfied and go about their ways to the business of life. ...
In the poem "Sex Without Love ", Sharon Olds uses the simile "Beautiful as dancers, gliding over each other like ice skates over the ice " to paint a picture in the readers head of what the act of intercourse can be compared to. ... Sex with love leads to babys that are wanted. On the other hand sex without love can lead to unwanted babies that get given away. ... The figurative meaning of cardio could be love because the heart is a symbol of love. ... She also used reputation because it shows that what being said is important. ...
Since many people fall into and out of love it is difficult to define what love actually is. Rilke explains what an ideal love relationship is, different errors young people make, and ways to correct them. ... Yet the two people for sake of a relationship hold on to that single physical attraction, what they thought was love. ... He means that if the people jumped into the relationship in order for it to survive and thrive that they are, to understand that what they have is not love but only a building bock to work with. ... I believe in most of what Rilke has to say about love. ...
"(3) Ed and Terri's relationship did not include what most people call love. ... "I don't know what you'd call it, but I sure know you wouldn't call it love... Mel begins his monologue "what do any of us really know about love? ... What happened to that love?"... "(117) To Mel, the kind of love that the old couple shares is what he would deem real love. ...
This is a location of Love Canal. ... What the company didn't tell anyone is that they had dumped more than 21,000 tons or 42 million pounds of chemical waste into the canal, and that the landfill next door was being used as a dump for another 318 million pounds of chemical sludge. ... After what happened you might expect the site to be closed down permanently. But, like everything at Love Canal, what has actually happened defies common sense: the government has re-sold some of the houses on the site, and 70 families have moved back into the same homes that were evacuated in 1980 (more...
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love takes place in one sitting, and is about two married couples drinking gin together, and having a talk about the nature of love. Both stories bring a hazy view as to what love actually means for these people. The characters in What We Talk About When We Talk About Love seem to have stronger feelings about the subject only when the alcohol seems to be kicking in. ... It is obvious that all the characters from both stories are a bit confused as to what real love is. ... Emma's view as to what love actually was seemed to very similar to Mel's...
