Love has many manifestations. Love is multifaceted – this is a feeling that arises between a man and a woman; it is the love of a mother for her child; children’s love for parents; altruism or selfless forms of love for one’s neighbor; it is also a manifestation of abstract love for art, for knowledge. We believe that everyone can give their own definition of love.
Thinkers have tried for thousands of years to understand it and describe the forms it takes. We tried to collect and present different views on the phenomenon of love, interpretation of different types of love.
“Forms of Love” in ancient Greek culture
They tried to understand and describe the phenomenon of love in ancient Greece. Thanks to the ancient Greek thinkers, today we can talk about the following types, manifestations of love:
Sensual love (“Eros”). Enthusiastic love, accompanied by passion, veneration of the object of love. This is a violent, spontaneous attachment.
Love is a game (“ludus”). Feeling based primarily on sexual desire, on getting pleasure. It is the attachment that novelty feeds. Boredom and routine are fatal for her.
Obsessive love, “painful passion”, obsession (“mania”). The “fire” of such love is supported by passion and jealousy.
Practical love (“pragma”). For this type of love, reason and self-interest in the relationship play a major role. The choice of a partner is not carried out by the will of the heart, but by virtue of selfish motives.
Love-friendship (“philia”). Spiritual state of attachment due to personal choice. Unlike “eros”, a more relaxed feeling. It can be love based on family ties – love for relatives, or love, based on one’s own choice – love for friends. Such love can be directed not only to an animated object. For example, “philia” is also love for the motherland.
Love-tenderness, family love (“storge”). It is the love of parents for their children.
Sacrificial love (“agape”). Altruistic, unconditional love, which is characterised by self-denial, the rejection of personal gain, from personal interests. This “kind” of love for one’s neighbour is preached by world religions .
“Love” in the Russian philosophical tradition
The Russian philosopher Vladimir Solovyov gave his own definition of love: “the attraction of an animate being to another in order to unite with him and mutually replenish life” .
Types of love, according to Solovyov’s concept:
- Downward love. For example, the love of parents for their children. Such love is oriented to give, not to receive in return.
- Rising love. The love of children for their parents. A love that takes more than gives.
- Sexual love , in which everything is balanced – this love is oriented equally to give and receive in return.
“Fruitful” and “unfruitful” love in the works of Erich Fromm
The German philosopher and sociologist Erich Fromm singled out two opposite forms of love: fruitful and unfruitful love. triptogether review
Fruitful love (love according to the principle of being) gives a feeling of the fullness of life, it can be directed both to a loved one and to an abstract idea, an inanimate object (for example, love for the Fatherland, love for knowledge). This form of love involves caring and expressing feelings, as well as the desire for the object of love to develop.
Unfruitful love (love on the principle of possession) is based on the desire to possess the object of love and thereby deprive him of his freedom. Possession, control suppress the will of a loved one. Such love is destructive, it does not serve development .
The manifestation of fruitful love, according to the philosopher, is a rarity. This love is at the heart of world religions.
“Forms of Love is like a disease…”
American psychologist Dorothy Tennov, author of the book “Love and falling in love” calls love a painful condition. Love, in its interpretation, is like a biological “tool” aimed at reproduction and providing care for offspring.
The disease-love has its own symptoms: obsession with the object of love; an acute need for reciprocity of feelings; reciprocal love brings a feeling of euphoria; neglect of everyday affairs and duties, as a result of an obsessive focus on the object of painful love; “blindness” regarding the shortcomings and exaggeration of the merits of the object of desire; sexual attraction .
Or maybe just chemistry?
From the point of view of biochemistry, falling in luv is a chain of chemical processes occurring in the body. Hormones and substances that “accompany” the feeling of falling in love in the body:
- Phenylethylamine is a substance responsible in our body for energy and emotional upsurge, sexual arousal and is rightfully considered a “substance of luv”.
- The well-known joy hormones are endorphins .
- Oxytocin is a hormone that stimulates tactile sensations. Thanks to him, you want to feel closeness, hug, touch your loved one. It is believed that this hormone, in addition to sensitivity, is responsible for attachment to a loved one.triptogether.com
