Various types of love exist, but they all have something in common: they all have a desire for a close relationship with another person. While there are many different types of love, we can generally divide them into two: erotic love and storge love. Erotic love is focused on physical attraction and intense intimacy, while storge love puts less emphasis on physical attractiveness. In storge love, both partners are open to one another and trusting, with a low need to control and rely on each other.
The study of love is a relatively new branch of science, but a pioneering work by psychologists such as Freud has made this concept a central focus in the field. The philosopher and psychoanalyst argued that it was time to study the subject, since it has been the subject of thousands of years of artistic treatment and creative writing. However, early explorations of love drew much criticism, including a derisive statement by U.S. Senator William Proxmire.
A complex tying together of various feelings, including warmth and protectiveness, is what makes love such a wonderful emotion. It is also applicable to principles and religious beliefs. For centuries, philosophy and religion have debated the definition of love, and different people have had wildly divergent interpretations. But most people agree that it implies strong feelings of affection. Love is a vital part of our lives and can help us live healthy, happy lives. If you feel loved, you’ll go above and beyond to make the person you care about happy.
Researchers have found that when a person is in love, their frontal cortex is less active than usual, which makes them more likely to fall in a romantic relationship. Researchers have speculated that this could be because of the evolutionary reasons behind the development of romantic love. The suspension of reason makes for easier coupling and procreation. However, all this research indicates that love is a biological process, and that humans can experience both types of love. The question is, how does love arise?
According to ancient Greek philosophers, there are three types of love. These categories are storge (a family relationship), phila (friendship), and agape, which is the ultimate form of romantic love. The ancient Greeks also defined love in terms of a number of other categories. In modern times, the distinctions are often blurred. We can no longer talk of the two types of love without referring to one another’s definition.
A similar problem arises with the evaluation of love. Those who are deeply committed to a relationship often do so by avoiding explicitly reductionist language and emphasizing the importance of emotional interdependence. Such accounts cannot be easily evaluated, which leads to the difficulty of classifying love. However, they do have a common characteristic: they are based on historical patterns of emotional responsiveness. In this way, they can account for the subjective “depth” of love.