What is Love? Love and its Theory
Friday, February 13, 2015
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I learn to create love in my heart and silently share it with everyone I meet, love will grace every corner of my life. -Teja Sunil
What is Love?
Love is one of the most spoken and least understood words in our daily vocabulary. Love is commonly equated with sensual enjoyment, but does such superficial titillation offer substantial satisfaction to the heart? The suffering of the stomach hungry for food is well-recognized, but the agony of the heart hungry for love is often overlooked.
Where the Love was born? Brain! or Heart!
Fact is LOVE can't be Defined. But it was explained:
In fact, the Bible says "God is love." Love is one of the primary characteristics of God.
Love in Islam is all-encompassing, comprehensive and sublime, rather than being restricted to one form only, which is love between a man and a woman. Rather, there are more comprehensive, wider and sublime meanings.
Bhagavad Gita – its hidden message of love:
Krishna starts His message of love by enlightening Arjuna: we are all souls, spiritual beings (Gita 2.13), entitled to rejoice in eternal love with the supremely lovable and loving God,Krishna. When our loving nature is contaminated by selfishness, we start loving things more than persons – especially the Supreme Person.
According to science, Love is a Genetic base chemical reactions that happens in the Harmon's of the human body.Types of Love: Psychology and the Triangular Theory of Love
Psychology continues to struggle with the question of how to define love, and after decades of research, is no closer to the ultimate answer. However, the triangular theory of love proposed by University of Wyoming Robert Sternberg provides a fascinating and useful framework. The triangle here is not a true "love triangle," but instead is the shape used to represent love's three main dimensions.It’s easiest to understand the theory by looking at this figure. Each point of the triangle represents the extreme of one of the dimensions of love.
The Three Building Blocks of Love
Intimacy:
At the top of the triangle is the extreme of intimacy, which is the extent to which your relationship is characterized by feelings of closeness, connectedness, and strong emotional bonds.
Passion:
Finally, passion reflects the intensity of your sexual desire toward your partner. This desire may take the form of romantic attachment as well as strong sexual attraction and a desire to be with your partner.
Commitment:
The commitment pole reflects your decision to stay in the relationship. People who are strongly committed to their relationship make a vow to stay in that relationship through thick and thin, and therefore are willing to work hard to keep it going even if the thin outweighs the thick.
The Types of Love Using These Building BlocksSternberg came up with a triangular model where the three love components take the vertices of the triangle. The three love components interacts with each other to generate seven distinct kinds of love.
Sternberg’s seven kinds of love.
1. Consummate Love
This is the ideal kind of love in which all the three components are present in their right proportions. This form of love is considered to produce the perfect couple. The love relationship can survive over a very long time. However, it can also die if any of the three components start to diminish.
2. Fatuous Love
This occurs when people make commitments based on passion without the element of intimacy. Lack of the stabilizing effect of intimacy makes the relationship disintegrate as passion diminishes with time.
3. Companionate Love
Companionate love is the kind that exists among family members. It involves intimacy and long-term commitment .This kind of love is characteristic of many couples who still remain affectionate and committed to each other long after passion dies.
4. Romantic Love
This form of love happens as a result of intimacy and passion.Such couples are attracted to each other physically and have strong emotional bond. However, there is absence of commitment in the relationship.
5. Empty Love
This is characterized by the absence of intimacy and passion. Partners in such a relationship are only committed to each other.
6. Infatuated Love
It is a form of love driven by passion only. Intimacy and commitment can develop over time making infatuated love to graduate to romantic and consummate love. However, it can diminish quite easily if the other components do not come in.
7. Liking
It is characterized by feelings of friendship. There are feelings of warmth and closeness towards each other. However, there is absence of commitment and any strong passion towards each other.
8. Non-love
This happens where there is absence of all the three components. People just interact casually with one another.
Psychologists may still not have the ultimate definition of love, but the framework provided by triangle theory can give you a practical tool to maximize the fulfilling you receive out of your closest ties.
Source: Types of Love, Psychology Today, Eenadu, TheSpirtualScientist, Bible, Kuraan
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