Love
Love means a feeling of affection and attachment to a being or thing, that those who feel pushed to seek proximity , which can be physical, spiritual or even imaginary, with the object of that love, and adopt a behavior particular (more or less rational ) accordingly.
The word love can refer to a variety of feelings, and behavioral states, ranging from pleasure usually associated with an object or activity ("I like chocolate," "I like dancing") to deep or intense attraction for one or more persons ("I love my husband," I love my children "). This diversity of jobs and meanings of the word makes it difficult to define a united and universal, even in comparison to other states emotional.
As a concept generally love refers mostly to a deep feeling of affection towards a person. However, even this specific conception of love includes a wide range of different feelings, ranging from the desire passionate love and romantic , to close the tender without sexuality of family love or the platonic love , and spiritual devotion of religious love. Love in its various forms serves as a major factor in social relations and occupies a central place in psychology human, making it also one of the most common themes in the art.
Summary |
In history, philosophy and religion (and the theology which is linked) have pondered the phenomenon much in love, constant source of inspiration for visual arts , literary and musical. The psychology in the last century, renewed reflection on the subject. In recent years, sciences such as biology , the neurology and neurobiology , but also zoology and anthropology , have improved our understanding of the nature and function of love.
A story of love
In Ancient Greece
This term love, covers four distinct feelings of the ancient Greek : eros, philia, the agape and storge.
- Philia is close friendship as understood today is a strong mutual respect between two people of similar social status. She could not exist at the time between two persons of the same sex because of gender inequality. This is an extension of friendship.
- The Eros refers to sexual attraction, the desire. In Platonic thought , it is sometimes seen as a negative passions that produced the epithumiai (or "appetite"), but also as a "divine madness" which is "the cause of the greatest blessings for men" . But he could mingle with the philia through pederasty , which linked a lover Mature (erastes ") to a young loved (eromene).
- The agape love of neighbor is a unique relationship that is closer today to the altruism. It is characterized by its spontaneity, this is not a deliberate act or a form of politeness but a real empathy for others they are strangers or intimate. In the tradition of Christian church fathers , the word is related to the concept of charity , although it is closer to a relationship established with the material suffering people. The agape is not of the original connotation of moral responsibility before a divine.
- Storge describes the family love, like love, affection of a parent for his child.
In American society of the 1960s
According to the magazine Planet , relationships with the United States , according to their type, were expressed in the 1960's by three words:
- "Love": the feeling of love;
- "Sex": sexual intercourse without prejudice feelings, present or not;
- "Fun": the simple exchange of intersex relations from simple flirtation to further relations, but without commitment or intent on the one hand or the other.
Philosophical approach
"Living on love and fresh water is an ideal dream for some. Neither war nor toil; only love. " Peace and Love "(" Peace and Love "). Pleasure of non-violence , seduction, eroticism and sexual entertainment.
Love is a theme with depth philosophy. For example, to answer this question: the man he is the source of love that lives or love is a natural concept that needed to man?
The philosopher Baruch Spinoza , who has worked extensively on the issue, particularly in his Ethics , defines love as follows:
- "Love is nothing but joy, accompanied by the idea of an external cause (...) We also see that he who loves trying necessarily to get this thing and keep that it likes . "
In fact, the speech inaugurating the possible link between philosophy and love is "The Banquet" of Plato. Ironically, this discourse opens and closes at the same time, the theme of love "human" was replaced by that of love "divine" by Christianity. Indeed, it is perhaps more appropriate to speak of denigration rather than replacing both the Western philosophical discourse has reduced the theme of love between men and women was a matter of bodily pleasure, sin, lust, etc.. A fortiori, if strangely, it seems that it is through literature that the theme of love has been treated by philosophers. Thinking of Rousseau, Goethe, Voltaire, etc.. On this last point, that is to say about moving the location-based querying on the Greek agape to the literature, we refer to Derrida.
The philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer argues that love is an illusion of the Will (the essence of all things according to him) who seeks to perpetuate itself through reproduction. The twentieth century is no exception. Furthermore Sartre is primarily Emmanuel Levinas who called out the philosophical world by developing the theme of otherness: The Time and the other, Totality and Infinity, etc.. This brought even ethics to the rank of first philosophy, real upheaval in the Western egocentrism.
Psychological approach
Psyche
On a psychological level, the psychoanalytic view that early relationships parents - children are crucial in the mind of a person and his perception of love. Relations parent - son and father - daughter , in particular, are particularly striking. The parent-child relationships are generally unbalanced: the parent meets the needs of the child. It says in this case that the love of the child and the parent captative sacrificial.
Growing up the child learn to rebalance the relationship. This learning can fail at any given time, and keep an adult immaturity if he is not conscious and a perception of love more or less injured. Relations between his parents they would also be important in the construction of the idea of love.
Fill a gap
Love can be seen as essentially the search for a missing oblative when the concept was not developed.
The love one has for a person or object would be born with what he brings or is likely to bring. "Love" is none other than unconsciously to confess his own helplessness to independence for a particular need at any given time. Need to love or need to feel loved none other than a selfish need, an expectation of the person who could fill the 'gaps' or intangible property that we would not be able to meet by ourselves. For example, in the West, the need for a child would need a companion or a companion by our side, a need that fuels the sense of love or need to love the person you would expect to conceive this child.
Psychic reality of the need for more child lies in a need for security reasons apparently the good of the child: the feed and support around the age adult. But this attitude apparently generous, would underpin it a hidden desire among some parents to be accompanied to old age.
In this type of situation, "love" or say "I'm in love (is)" would be an unconscious way of saying "I hope the person for whom I experience feelings of love will bring me things that I wait for it. " As long as one feels in the presence of loved things expected of her, the feeling persists, but if your loved one loses or does not have some of what the other expects, the feeling of love fades or goes out. When this feeling fades, it is not uncommon to hear: "Our two paths separated" because "my needs have changed," "we do not follow the same route, etc.. At that time, the person feels "at risk" may be prone to anxiety attacks. The person may be left more or less indifferent, if this is not the case that is "abandoned" will probably have a sense of sadness , of jealousy , of anger or even hatred ...
Biological approach
Zoology: romantic behavior in hominoids
Zoologically , life and human sexual behavior have much in common with those of other primates , and more generally with all mammals. The observation of the species closest to Homo sapiens, the pygmy chimpanzee of the Congo or bonobo (Pan paniscus) as well as other great apes , suggests that love is merely an evolved form of phenomena existing among our cousins in attenuated form.
Physiologically, the coitus as observed in the homo sapiens is no different from the coupling among the great apes. In contrast, the sequence of love, the first approaches, seduction until mating, appears to have evolved in parallel with the enlargement of the cerebral cortex which was endowed our species during its recent evolution. Ideation skills, imagination, anticipation and strategy resulting have complicated the process in the extreme.
The continuing commitment, the formation of relatively stable couples is also observed in our cousins, but without reaching the diversity of individual behaviors, duration, and the fundamental role of imagination found in human love life.
Another factor that distinguishes us from apes, with enormous consequences, is almost constant availability of the human female at mating, which does not exist in other mammals.
Zoologists were also interested in competitive advantage, in terms of the species that gives love as manifested in humans. There appear to be necessary to secure the couple during the period of extreme vulnerability of young, itself followed by the development phase of the intelligence of an adult moments, relative to their counterparts in related species, are extremely long.
In addition, sexual behavior occur in extremely variable in animals . From a evolutionary standpoint, the wide variety of romantic behavior influence species diversity.
Neurological and biochemical aspect of being in love
Animal studies of attachment have shown that different types of attachment (filial, romantic, fraternal, friendly, an animal, a habitat, an environment or an object) have partly common neurobiological bases. In humans, attachment "romantic" involves essentially the same brain regions as well as some structures involved in reward . Attachment "romantic" would depend, at least in part, the sociocultural context. Indeed, we observe that in societies where the erotic activity occurs daily and simply, romantic attachment is less marked and more "calm" in the passions and ecstasies of romantic love West, "who longs as a furnace "for an impossible romantic ideal . Several authors have emphasized the similarity between some aspects of passion (altered mental status, exalted mood, intrusive thoughts of the loved one ...) and some psychiatric disorders (eg observed in bipolar disorder and obsessive compulsive) . Schematically, it would seem that the involvement of the reward system , a factor crucial to human sexuality , , induces an "addiction" to be "liked" that would lead to states of "missing" when this item is unavailable . These mental states induced by intense romantic passions are the source not only of remarkable achievements in the arts , the poetry and literature , but also changes individual ( suicide attempts , crimes of passion ...) and social (as legend, the Trojan War was caused due to the abduction of Helen by Prince Paris, who was captivated by her extraordinary beauty).
As for maternal love, animals, interference with a natural process like childbirth disrupts attachment of the female to her offspring. Thus, "the sheep parturients who underwent epidural anesthesia does not show maternal behavior .
Anthropological approach
Love & Family
In his latest book, The First Love (Plon, 1999), children are very passionate and know very soon what love means, we love to three years as we love all his life, 'says psychologist Francesco Alberoni .
The original link is the first love story according to the researchers, a continuing quest to love all the stories coveted. The sexual attachment present from birth neurophysiological activity that would continue to overflow in childhood to adulthood physically with the surge of hormones causing physiological responses in adolescence. Jean-Pol Tassin, a neurobiologist at the College de France, said that the love stories are emotional elements in the brain that processes are an extension of the maternal bond. "From birth, a report to the mother based on the search for sense pleasures is created, he says. With this first report hedonistic, the child during its development is building what might be called a "basin attractor": it gradually integrates its satisfaction first and will spend his life in search of other similar stimuli. "
The family is a place rich in romantic relationships: marital love, maternal love , and more generally, parental, filial, sibling.
The importance of the condition of members of a family of them is illustrated by the emotion experienced in major events such as birth, marriage , success, an event, accident, death.
Sex
Love is not fundamentally different in the various human cultures, courtship remaining basically the same in Africa , in East , in Europe or North America .
History and sociology
- F. Alberoni , Clash lovers , trans. fr. Ramsay, 1981; Eroticism, trans. fr. Ramsay, 1986; The nuptial flight, trans. fr. Plon, 1994; I love you, all about the passion of love, trans. fr. Plon, 1997.
- Elisabeth Badinter , L'amour en plus: the story of maternal love (XVII - XX century), Flammarion, 1980, ISBN 2 081 100 2 August.
- Z. Bauman , Liquid Love. The fragility of relationships between men, the Rouergue, 2004.
- J. Duvignaud , The genesis of the passions in the social, PUF, 1990.
- M. Foucault , The History of Sexuality, three volumes (The desire to know; The Use of Pleasure, The care of the self), Gallimard, 1976-1984.
Religion
- Benedict XVI Deus Caritas Est , 2005.
Related Articles
- Greek words for love say
- Troubadour | Tantra
- Kiss | Desire | Friendship | Hate | Free love | Self-esteem | Love-fusion | Tenderness | Thunderbolt | Compassion | Soul sister
- Love affair | Evening hugs | sex | gay
- Couple
- Amur River
External Links
- The University of Berlin, the largest database on human sexuality ( French documents / Global Home )
- "More love? 'Televised debate on France , 11-02-2010
| Generality | Human Sexuality Love Libido Sexual intercourse sexual position Gender sex toys |
| Social Aspects | Sex Education Pornography (by country: Japan ) prostitution (by country: China France Japan Nepal ) Male Prostitution Sex Tourism Sexual Assault Sexism Sexual Offenses Majority sexual |
| Health | Sexually transmitted infection Contraception contragestation Abortion Impotence Premature ejaculation Frigidity Circumcision Excision |
| Sexologists | Havelock Ellis Auguste Forel Otto Gross Alfred Kinsey Grard Leleu Wilhelm Reich Jocelyn Robert William Masters and Virginia Johnson |
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