Love and Its Different Types
Love is a form of strong emotion and personal affection for another person. It is also a virtue that shows human compassion, empathy, sympathy, and selfless concern for another person (Peterson, Tracie, 2016). Love is also a virtue that binds people regardless of the turn of events in life, whether good or bad. The essence and nature of love can be considered as a topic of different perspectives and diverse features, which can best be explained in the different ways that love is expressed. Love can be explained in reference to how different people practice, which form the basis for the different classifications of love. This essay focuses on different types of love which are; erotic love, affectionate love, familial, and obsessive love which describe forms of attraction between people.
Erotic Love
Love at times is considered to be companionship, and is frequently used when describing the affection between people with close relationships. One of the classifications of love is erotic. It is a sexual attraction and passion that is caused by an intense eroticism and sexual cravings (Konstan, 2016). Erotic love is focused on attracting people together for a common course. For instance, a boy may be attracted to a girl and what binds them together is the time they spend together, as they express love and feelings of arousal to each other. Eros love acts like a starting point to other types of love since it brings people together and can degenerate to other types.
Affectionate Love
People who develop erotic love can attain a level where they show compassion to each other through feelings of mutual respect, trust, and affection. In such instances, the involved individuals desire to have the other person to have deep and caring affection towards them. Thus, it changes from mere attraction to feeling that one needs the other person to be with them more than before. Such type of love is called affectionate love which is evident to people who have had various experiences together. The type of love can be expressed through a sense of touch, gestures, and looks. Affectionate love can be beneficial by impacting great health benefits to the people in love. For instance, when one person has an emotional problem, the other person can spend time and share the issue together, which in turn relieves the other person.
Familial Love
As discussed in affectionate love, there is a desire to have the other person near and have a deep affection with them. The type of love can best be evident in familial love which exists naturally, such as that of a parent towards an offspring (Helm, 2010). Familial love is similar to affectionate love except that it involves no sexual or physical attraction. Familial love focuses on affiliations and acquaintances. Familial love is best exemplified between brothers and sisters, parents and their children, and among friends. The type of love is fast to forgive; it's unconditional, accepts faults, it's sacrificial and makes the involved people comfortable, safe, and feel secure.
Obsessive Love
Erotic love can become so strong that the involved parties become obsessive with each other. The level of attraction between two people becomes so intense that one can be seen as madly in love, as evident in obsessive or mania love. The resulting effect is that each one of them feels an overwhelming obsessive desire to possess the other person due to the strong feeling of attraction. Obsessive love can be interpreted as a mental illness and sometimes may require intervention through psychotherapy (De Robertis et al., 76). In most instances, obsessive love is evident between two people who are sexually attracted and feel as though they cannot live without the other.
Conclusion
Love is a wonderful entity that boosts the moods and emotions regardless of the condition of a person. Love is the best thing that every person can feel, hence no one should be taken seriously (Christofi, 134). Love is expressed in different ways, which portray different meanings and impacts to the people involved. Whether it is erotic, affection, familial, or obsessive, the purpose is to bring people together through shared feelings.
Work 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.
Helm, Bennett W. Love, friendship, and the self: Intimacy, identification, and the social nature of persons. Oxford University Press, 2010.
Konstan, David. Sexual Symmetry. Princeton University Pres, 2016.
Peterson, Tracie. A Love Transformed. 2016.
