Love is a condition or phenomenon of emotional primacy, or absolute value. Love generally includes an emotion of intense attraction to either another person, a place, or thing; and may also include the aspect of caring for or finding identification with those objects, including self-love. Love can describe an intense feeling of affection, an emotion or an emotional state. In ordinary use, it usually refers to interpersonal love, an experience usually felt by a person for another person. Love is commonly considered impossible to define.
The concept of love, however, is subject to debate. Some deny the existence of love, calling it a recently invented abstraction. Others maintain that love exists but is indefinable; being a quantity which is spiritual, metaphysical, or philosophical in nature. The views that love does not exist or is indefinable may underlie the fact that approximately 13 percent of cultures have no word for love. The remaining 87 percent attempt to define this abstract concept and apply it to everyday life. Love is one of the most common themes in art and often times is an excuse for " bad art". Some psychologists maintain that love is the abstract action of lending one's "boundary" or "self esteem" to another.
Overview
Love has several different meanings in the English language, from something that gives a little pleasure to something for which one would die. And in contrast to the definition at the top, frequently people use the verb "love" to indicate want or desire for themselves as opposed to for another. For example "I love that lamp," does not refer to desiring wellness for the lamp, but rather to the desire for the lamp. The word also frequently indicates elevated appreciation or admiration: "I love that artist," An individual might state.
Cultural differences make any universal definition of love difficult to establish. Expressions of love may include the love for a soul or mind, the love of laws and organizations, love for a body, love for nature, love of food, love of money, love for learning, love of power, love of fame, and love for the respect of others. Different people place varying degrees of importance on the kinds of love they receive. Love is essentially an abstract concept, easier to experience than to explain. Many believe, as stated originally by Virgil that "Love conquers all", or as stated by The Beatles, "All you need is love". Bertrand Russell describes love as a condition of "absolute value", as opposed to "relative value".
Types of Love
- Courtly love – a late medieval conventionalized code prescribing certain conduct and emotions for ladies and their lovers
- Erotic love – desire characterized by sexual desires
- Familial love – affection brokered through kinship connections, intertwined with concepts of attachment and bonding
- Free love – sexual relations according to choice and unrestricted by marriage
- Platonic love – a close relationship in which sexual desire is nonexistent or has been suppressed or sublimated
- Puppy love – romantic affection that is not "mature" or not "true." The term reflects a bias that love between youngsters is somehow less valid.
- Religious love – devotion to one's deity or theology
- Romantic love – affection characterized by a mix of emotional and sexual desire
- True love - love without condition, motive or attachment. Loving someone just because they are themselves, not their actions or beliefs in particular.
- Unrequited love – affection and desire not reciprocated or returned
Stages of Relationship Formation
1) Contact:
a) Uncertainty reduction - through eye contact, identification, opening disclosure, etc.
b) Perceptual - notice how a person looks at the other and their body language.
c) Interactional cues - nodding, maintaining eye contact, etc.
d) Invitational - encouraging the relationship (e.g. asking if they want to meet up later for coffee)
e) Avoidance strategies - if one person discloses and the other does not, minimal response, lack of eye contact, etc.
2) Involvement
a) Feelers - hints or questions (example;
asking about family)
b) Intensifying strategies - further the relationship (example;
meeting old friend, bringing the other to meet family, becoming more affectionate, etc.)
c) Public - seen in public together often (example; if in a romantic relationship, may be holding hands)
3) Intimacy -very close, may have exchanged some sort of personal belonging or something that represents further commitment. (example;
may be a promise ring in a romantic relationship or a friendship necklace symbolizing two people are best friends)
4) Deterioration - things start to fall apart. In a romantic relationship, after six months, people are out of what is sometimes referred to as the "honeymoon stage" and start to notice flaws. The way this is dealt with determines the fate of the relationship.
True Love - a connection between two people,
deeply understood and unexplainable, though very existent.
Love overall is a connection between two people that can not ever be destroyed
