The 7 types of love you can experience

We believe in love and we are convinced of the incredible emotion that it is. The same one that makes us contemplate life through a glass that beautifies the world around us. That is indisputable.

But what we also want you to know is that it is not something that can be established as universal and invariable, and to explain it to us, the American psychologist Sternberg built a triangle to explain his theory, according to which, there really are 7 types of love.

Perhaps what you are wondering is based on how they differ from each other. In this case, we will tell you that it is the presence or absence of its three main components that determines the differences between these types. Would you like to know what it is about?

• Related article: "Romantic love: what is it and why does it confuse us so often?"

Components in the different types of love

Starting from one of the most important classifications of the various types of love that exist, which is the Triangular Theory of Sternberg, three variables are established that constitute the vertices of a triangle, these being passion, intimacy and commitment. We tell you what we mean by each of them:

Passion

With passion we refer to a kind of sexual desire of great intensity, in which there is an intense tendency to seek physical union (and sometimes also emotional) with the other person.

When one person finds another desirable as a sexual partner, two elements are involved in this whole process; sexual appetite and attraction.

Privacy

It takes place when the openness between the two people involved occurs and it facilitates mutual knowledge, their particularities, their way of proceeding and their emotions.

In this case, the closeness between the two people is promoted, who find understanding and reciprocity in the communication that exists between them.

Commitment

And the third element that comes into play in this love triangle is commitment, which is defined as the Willingness or decision to care for and maintain the bond between the two people involved, assuming it as a responsibility also in adversity and in the face of difficulties that may arise.

But what are the 7 types?

According to Sternberg's triangular theory of love, these are the different types of love that exist:

1. Honey (Intimacy)

Among the existing types of love, we would say that it is the most common between two people united by a friendship, since the only component present in the love triangle is intimacy.

Basically they are two people with a relationship based on great trust to have a mutual openness when it comes to showing themselves as they really are.

2. Infatuation (Passion)

As typical of love at first sight as in one-night stands. Basically are the result of a physical and sexual attraction (but nothing more) that the only thing you are looking for is the satisfaction of desire.

But lacking any other element, infatuation is one of the shortest types of love that occurs between two people. Once the whim is satisfied, it is left behind.

3. Empty Love (Engagement)

Marriages of convenience would represent this type of bond very well, in which what has been agreed is only the commitment to stay with the other person.

Although in some cases (few) with the passage of time in coexistence the intimacy between the two people arises and Passion can also be aroused, but it cannot be said that it is the natural consequence of this type of Union.

4. Social Love or Companion (Intimacy and Commitment)

In this type of relationship there is a solid trust between the two people that forms the basis of the bond and commitment are the pillars that keep it strongly erected.

Although it could be extrapolated to different types of love between two people, partner love represents the kind of connection that unites those long-distance couples that with the passing of the years you continue to see them as accomplices of life. A love that has matured well, although passion has gone to a secondary level in which sex does not have the relevance that it could have had in the first years together.

5. Fatuo Love (Passion and Commitment)

Sometimes it happens that, in our immediate environment, someone close to us initiates a couple relationship in which we can clearly perceive a great attraction From which sparks fly and joins the mutual desire to consolidate as a stable couple despite the short time since its inception. Passion and commitment are more than evident, however, there has not been time to create true intimacy.

It may happen that the relationship reaches the intimate connection that leads it towards the realization of the desired consummate love, but it is also Frequently, as time progresses when the two of them are together, the true characters that had not yet shown themselves emerge and What actually arises is disenchantment, to discover that the person we had fallen in love with is not truly as he made us believe that he was.

6. Romantic Love (Passion and Intimacy)

And among the different types of love that can exist at the level of a couple, here we have represented the group of lovers, who They enjoy a sincere and open intimacy that allows them to connect with each other with a unique level of trust and complicity, at the same time Park They can unleash their desire for one another.

But it is not a perfect love, since the commitment does not become part of the existing bond between the two of them. There is no future in your moments, only the here and now.

7. Consummate Love (Passion, Intimacy and Commitment)

And finally, the one that would be the most complete of the existing types of love according to Sternberg; consummate love that brings together passion, intimacy and commitment with the same weight in the relationship between two people.

Hard to reach? Of course... it is not easy at all. But what is truly a feat, although it is really worth it, is once achieved, being able to maintain it. It would be like getting a fire to stay alive over time, never stop giving its heat.

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