Definition Of The Word Love: What Does A Person In Love Feel?

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Definition Of The Word Love: What Does A Person In Love Feel?
Definition Of The Word Love: What Does A Person In Love Feel?

Video: Definition Of The Word Love: What Does A Person In Love Feel?

Video: Definition Of The Word Love: What Does A Person In Love Feel?
Video: What is LOVE? What does LOVE mean? LOVE meaning, definition & explanation 2024, March
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Definition of love
Definition of love

For thousands of years, philosophers, psychologists, scientists and ordinary people have been trying to comprehend the highest of feelings. What it is? Why are we testing it? "Definition of the word love" is a topic that is undoubtedly exciting. Can you even understand what it is? Not with your heart, but with your mind? And how is love to be distinguished from sympathy? Let's try to figure it out.

The content of the article

  • 1 What is love?
  • 2 How sympathy differs from love

What is love? I

Each dictionary has several definitions of the word "love". Perhaps one of the most popular and generalized describes it as a feeling of deep affection for someone or something. That is, you can feel love not only for a person, but, for example, for music or food. Then it will be considered an addiction, addiction. But in fact, the phenomenon of love is so complex that there are a great many interpretations.

Plato said "love is desire, and desire is a lack of something." Another ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle, believed that "to love is to rejoice." Already in Ancient Greece, it was customary to divide it into types. This is how “eros” appeared - such an enthusiastic love and love that it comes to reverence.

Or "storge" - a more tender feeling, often associated with the family. Philia is a kind of friendship based on affection due to personal preference or social connections. There is also "agape" - sacrificial, indulgent love for another. In late Christianity, it became an absolute love of God.

If even in antiquity there were so many different concepts of this word, what can we say about the modern world. Any person is an individual, with his own personal opinion and vision. For a long time, psychologists even bypassed this topic.

Apparently realizing that they cannot give a description of such a complex and completely uncontrollable phenomenon. But it still excited the minds of scientists. Therefore, sooner or later, whole treatises were dedicated to her.

Thus, the famous German sociologist and psychologist Erich Fromm created a landmark work with the sonorous title "The Art of Love". In it, he wrote the following: love is the only healthy and satisfying answer to the problem of human existence.

Quite curious, isn't it? In the same place, Fromm criticized the opinion that love is a thing. For him, she was something abstract that exists only as a process, some kind of action or act.

Naturally, modern researchers are also trying to unravel the phenomenon of this feeling. Understand what it consists of. One of them, American psychologist Robert Stenberg, who created a three-component theory of love.

In his opinion, it must necessarily include the following:

Definition of love
Definition of love
  • Intimacy is an emotional component that manifests itself as a connection, intimacy between people. It usually appears in difficult life situations when it is necessary to overcome the problems that have arisen together. In addition, according to Stenberg, a loving couple should have common interests and hobbies.
  • They completely trust each other, share the most intimate. At the same time, intimacy can arise between brothers and sisters, friends, children and parents.
  • Passion is a motivational component, it denotes sexual attraction between people. As a rule, it manifests itself most vividly at the beginning of a relationship, but over time it begins to fade. At the same time, passion does not end with only one sexual sphere. Its concept in this case is much broader and includes very strong emotions and feelings, for example, obsession.
  • It can turn into intimacy, but not in all cases. In general, just as intimacy can exist without passion, so the latter is quite viable without an emotional component.
  • Obligation is a cognitive or identification component. It, in turn, also consists of aspects. Short-term is a person's awareness that he loves someone. The long-term aspect is their commitment to maintaining love and devotion in the relationship.

How sympathy differs from love2

If we follow the logic of the same Stenberg, then sympathy will include only one component of the three necessary for love - intimacy. It turns out that this is just attachment, including trust. It is believed that you can feel sympathy for several people at once, and love only one.

what does a person feel when in love
what does a person feel when in love

Tenderness, spiritual closeness, trust and affection can be just between friends. So are common interests. In this case, there is no passion and devotion in the relationship for one or the other. There can be many friends. It turns out that sympathy is very strongly associated with friendship and, in fact, it is in a sense.

But sympathy can grow into something more, over time. In a relationship, passion and a desire to be faithful to the chosen one can appear. And it is impossible to predict when it will happen and whether it will happen at all.

What's the bottom line? Can you define the word "love"? Most likely, this will only be done by someone who has experienced such a subtle feeling for understanding. And it is not at all necessary that his interpretation will be similar to someone else's. Everyone determines for himself what love is for him.

And supporters of the theory of a glass of water have a different opinion on this matter. Interesting? We read further on the link.

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