Love: A Virtue of Human Compassion and Affection
Love is a feeling, which can be described as a strong emotion and personal affection for someone else. Moreover, it is the virtue signifying human compassion, empathy, and sympathy, as well as the selfless, loyal and generous concern for another good. Based on the above explanations, love forms a virtual bond that makes people united through having affection for each other. The essence and nature of love is a topic of numerous arguments. Most people have diverse features of the word love, as some can view the gift of love having affection for each other, another talk of familial love while other view love as deep feelings that connects spouses. The above diverse perceptions of love lead to the various classifications of love, which include erotic love, affectionate love, obsessive love. The essay talks about classification of love through the erotic, affectionate, familial, and obsessive loves using respective examples in each category.
Erotic Love: Passion Driven by Intensities
The first classification of love is erotic love. Erotic love, which is also called Eros, a Greek term that means God of fertility. Erotic love happens based on sexual desire and passion driven by intensities between two people. This love inspires the eroticism spirits and sexual cravings that often makes people love each other and become spouses. A good example of erotic love is love between two people, which eventually leads to matrimony. However, erotic love assumes reciprocity and strives for a unity of lovers in which in some frequent instances there is no reciprocity. The lack of reciprocity makes people act differently as some move on to find other spouses while others might have had intensified love towards a spouse, where the lack of reciprocity makes other people commit suicide. The major purpose of erotic love is making two people live together unitedly as from aspects such as religion; God decided that he should put people together in the case of Adam and Eve to help each other and procreate to fill the earth. Erotic love runs its course although, at times, erotic love might arise from affectionate love.
Affectionate Love: A Bond Formed Through Shared Experiences
The second classification of love is affectionate love. Affectionate love is the type of love, which is practiced by persons who have experienced hard times together as one. Touches, gestures, and looks can share this type of love. For example, affectionate love gives great health benefits, where a good instance can be portrayed when a family has a sick family member. The other family members help the sick member through feeding him, taking him to the hospital and showing empathy through quick recovery wishes ( Christofi 134). The affection makes one feel appreciated and being a special member of the society, which augments hope for recuperation. This type of love increases interaction between people, as expressed in great admiration to be with your loved one.
Familial Love: A Bond Among Relatives and Close Friends
The next classification of love is familial love. Familiar love also called Storge love is comparable to affectionate love, which is expressed through people closely related through blood or close friends. Storge love is similar to affectionate and erotic love except the distinct fact that storge love has no sexual magnetism, where most people say familial love is platonic. Storge is about the affiliation and acquaintance (Peterson 4). A good example of familial love would be between siblings, parents, and kids, and among friends. In addition, this type of love forgives. Familial love is also unconditional and accepts flaws or faults importance of this love, it sacrificial and make a person feel comfortable, safe and feel secure.
Obsessive Love: The Perils of Overwhelming Desire
The last category of love is the obsessive love. Obsessive or mania love is a love type that can cause a person to be fanatical in doing something. It mainly happens if there is a disproportion between erotic and ludus loves. As a result, one person feels an overwhelming, obsessive desire to possess another person with a strong attraction, with an inability to accept failure or rejection. Obsessive love is considered to be a mental illness and sometimes requires psychotherapy. (De Robertis et al. 76). A good example of obsessive love can be portrayed by people who are crazy and passionate about their talents, for example, swimming, playing basketball and playing music. Doing, talking and referring to these types of talents almost all the time can portray obsessive love. Other classifications of love include selfless, age and enduring love, which are minor classifications and in most of the occasions, these classifications are auxiliary to the above-discussed major categories.
The Power of Love: A Life-Changing Force
In conclusion, love is a wonderful entity whether it is unintentional or thoughtful dedication. Love can boost the spirit of a person in spite of the condition one is in. When an individual experience love feelings, he/she feels something, which is unique to them. Love is possibly the most astonishing thing a human can feel that no one should take it for granted. Love saved lives for many, who went through the war and disaster but had a reason to live because of love to somebody. Without love, society would not survive. Our self-esteem comes from a young age when we feel parents and siblings love. People who can feel love discover that they can write music, poems, write songs. Love can change the hardest heart.
Works Cited
Christofi, Alex. Let Us Be True. Profile Books, 2017.
De Robertis, Carolina, et al. Radical Hope: Letters of Love and Dissent in Dangerous Times. 2017.
Peterson, Tracie. A Love Transformed. 2016.
