The research on love has changed quite a bit since Freud first described it. While some researchers believe love is the most basic human emotion, others believe it is a cultural phenomenon. Still others disagree, saying that love is simply a physiological drive. Enrique Burunat argued that love is not really an emotion but rather a drive, a motivational mechanism. The American Psychological Association also defines love as a complex emotion. Regardless of the origin of the term, there is no doubt that love affects the brain.
The emotional-complex view emphasizes the importance of recognizing the complexity of love. It shows how love is not merely a response to antecedent values, but a creative response to them. These two views also illustrate the underlying conceptual relationship between love and its antecedents. This theory also claims that love is not just a reaction to appraisal, but a creative process that is distinct from appraisal. This makes love hard to categorize as a simple response to antecedent value.
When two people are deeply in love, they may desire to move in together, start a family, or lift each other up as they build their careers. In short, love is an ongoing process. However, it is not easy to maintain, and can be a real challenge. The best way to show your love is to be real. Be present and make room for freedom in your relationship. Love involves feeling, emotions, attitudes, and actions. This is the basis of all relationships, but it is especially critical for true love.
Love is a complex concept, which explains why it can be confusing for people. While romantic love is a very strong emotion, it is not the only kind of love. The Greeks divided love into four categories, which included storge (familial love), phila (friendship), and agape, the classical romantic love. Sometimes, these distinctions are blurred, but there are a few basic types of love.
Helm presents an account of love that focuses on intimate identification. He writes that “love” involves caring about another person as a person and sharing the things they value. This amount to sharing a person’s identity, and Helm is very careful to explain how this process is different from “loving” a dog. While Velleman is careful to define love as a series of actions and feelings, his approach outlines how to express it in terms of patterns of emotions.
In love, the person feels completely devoted to their partner and is willing to do anything to help them. This fast-growing attachment can fuel the desire to help their partner. Hormones that are released during the process of falling in love can influence the person’s decision-making. Hence, love should never be a source of negativity in one’s mental health. In fact, it is essential to keep a clear head while seeking help.
During the time of the Old Testament, the word agape is used for love. Greek and Hebrew have both ahabah and agape, and the latter is the word for “lovingkindness.” In the New Testament, agape is used as a negative term. It can mean “unnatural love.”