Did you know that there were 9 different types of love?
We all experience love differently. I often say that a couple are two people forming a new entity and that this entity is therefore always unique… and can take different forms! There is no “good” or “bad” way to love, what matters is that both partners find their groove and are allowed to bloom within the relationship. Let’s go through the different types of love together. We counted 9 :
9 different types of love
Passionate love
Passion come from “Pathos”, the greek word for pain, ordeal… You can imagine the carnage this kind of relationship can lead to. Passion is beautiful, strong, intense… at the beginning of a relationship! But be careful! Because if you go on like this for months or even years, you will be at each other’s throats. In fact you won’t tolerate the other’s absence, you will always need to be glued together, to know what the other is up to… And if, God forbid, one of you breaks loose in the slightest of ways, the other will feel empty and wrecked. Passion is good from time to time, I can only but recommend to live moments of insane love, but also to remain independent. Don’t live for and through the other.
Experiencing passionate love is living in the constant fear of losing the other and of not being able to find happiness without him/her.
Dominant/dominated love
It’s often the case for couples in which one manipulates the other. It can be narcissistic perverts or even violent men. In this kind of relationship, one will seek to take power over the other, to control him and to make him his puppet. Most of the time, the “submissive” isn’t conscious of the infernal situation and will always look for his own faults. He will then try to tend to his “tormentor”‘s every need, whom he will of course not see in such a way.
Platonic love
It’s a thoughtful and tender love that rejects any intimate and carnal consideration in the couple. It is a completely different intimacy that is experienced by the couple, who favors the sensitivity of words, the attention of gestures and the sweetness of exchanged looks over intimate relations (it is of course still possible to kiss). Platonic love is one of the most innocent forms of love, it symbolizes chastity, purity and is known as ” the most poetic and powerful of loves”… if the consent is mutual, goes without saying!!!
Read also : Differences between love and passion
Respectful love
If platonic love is respectful, respectful love isn’t necessarily platonic! In this kind of relationship, mutual respect and harmony of the souls are at the center of things. This kind of couple is very autonomous, which gives great freedom to both partners, a freedom based on total trust in one another. It’s a beautiful love, yet sometimes difficult to reach, that suits those who wish to keep their independence, even when in a couple.
Inaccessible love
A perfect example of one way love, even more so than dominant/dominated love! This inaccessible love, almost everyone of us has known it, especially during our childhood or teenage years : falling crazy in love with someone out of our reach, wether because of distance, age, social status or any other criteria.
A teacher, a movie star, a famous singer… It’s a fantasized love which we know to be impossible but that still keeps the dream alive… It’s all but a bad thing so long as that love doesn’t become an obsession and makes you suffer.
Selfless love
It’s a less frequent form of love, and yet it’s a thing : we talk about this kind of love when one of the partners wishes to give more than he receives. The said partner chooses to form a couple with a person who needs help both physically and psychologically.
Altruistic, he/she will do everything within his power to make this person’s life more beautiful and pleasant, and will do so whatever some people who can be disturned by a couple that isn’t “within the norm” may think (“what is he/she doing with this person, he/she deserves so much better!”).
Tender love
As opposed to passionate love, you can find tender love in older couples, where the fire still burns, only steadier. The flames of passion have given way to the embers of tenderness, less agile maybe, but still hot non the less! No more ups and downs of passionate love, the couple is looking for the calm and stability needed in a long term relationship. Feelings may be muffled but are still present. This love is proof of the maturity of the relationship, and a sign that it can still live on for a long time.
Sensual love
A love that can be compared to passionate or fusional love, but what this one really takes into account are carnal considerations. Both partners constantly feel an irrepressible physical attraction to each other, and end up hardly ever leaving bed! Intimate and carnal life is a key component of the couple (but isn’t an obligation, see platonic love), and couples experiencing sensual love understand that very well!
Conflictual love
This love happens when both partners are gifted with strong characters but love each other unconditionally all the same. The couple’s barometer often indicates : “Storm Alert”, but beyond appearences, it’s a solid couple : even during their frequent fights they seldom speak of real breakup. This love can however be difficult to endure in the long run, and for the balance of the couple, it’s no walk in the park!
