What is love scientifically and in simple words? What is love: briefly and clearly in your own words about the most important thing.

Psychologist Robert Sternberg proposes a theory that love has three essential components: intimacy, passion, and commitment.

• Intimacy- this is closeness and mutual support, partnership. It increases as the lovers draw closer and may not appear in a calm, measured life. However, in a crisis situation, when a couple has to overcome difficulties together, it is clearly expressed.
• Passion- this feeling . It culminates at the beginning of a relationship, but stops growing in long-term relationships. However, this does not mean that passion is absent in a long marriage - it simply ceases to be an important motivator for a couple.
• Commitments- readiness to be faithful to another person. This is the only component of love that increases over time in any relationship - both long-term and short-term - and becomes an increasingly significant aspect.

Kinds of love

Depending on whether these components are present in a relationship, Sternberg identifies seven varieties of love.

1. Sympathy. Includes only one component - intimacy. There is spiritual intimacy, a feeling of tenderness, affection for a person, but there is no passion and devotion.

2. Obsession. There is passion, but no intimacy or commitment. As a rule, passion arises very quickly and passes just as quickly. This is the same love at first sight, which can remain a fleeting passion, or maybe develop into something more.

3. Empty love. There are mutual obligations, but there is no passion and intimacy. This is love by calculation (not monetary, of course), when a person judiciously, having weighed all the pros and cons, decides to remain devoted to his partner. This kind of love is couples who lived together for a long time and lost their emotional and physical attraction to each other, but.

4. Romantic love. Characterized by intimacy and passion, but no devotion. Relationships are similar to sympathy, but in them, in addition to emotional intimacy, there is a physical attraction to a partner. This kind of love constantly pops up as a plot in literature and cinema (both in the classic play "Romeo and Juliet" and in popular women's novels).

5. Comradely love. A combination of intimacy and commitment. Passion is gone or never was. This love binds relatives, friends or spouses when the passion has passed.

6. Pointless love. An unusual combination of passion and devotion to a partner, but there is no spiritual intimacy with him. Such relationships often turn into a hasty marriage, when the couple decides to get married almost on a second date. However, if intimacy does not increase over time, such a marriage ends.

7. Perfect love. Includes all three components: passion, intimacy, devotion. All couples aspire to such relationships. And they can be achieved, but it is very difficult to maintain. This kind of love never lasts. This does not mean that relationships end in a break, they just lose one of the components, and ideal love is transformed into another kind, for example, into a friendly or empty one.

What is needed for the emergence of mutual love

Psychologist Elaine Hatfield, as a result of her research, came to the conclusion that in order for love to arise - mutual, bringing joy and satisfaction, or unrequited, leading to despair and - three factors must be present:

1. The right time. Be sure to be (ideally - both) willingness to fall in love with another person.

2. Similarity. It is no secret that people sympathize with those who are similar to themselves, and not only externally, but also internally - have similar interests, hobbies, affections.

3. Early attachment style. It depends on the personality of each. A calm, balanced person is more capable of long term relationship than impulsive and impetuous.

Psychologists strive to understand the nature of love, but at present it is unlikely that at least one of them will be able to answer the question of why and how this feeling appears. But the phenomenon of love certainly needs to be studied. After all, if you understand the patterns of this feeling, then the reasons will become clear, which in the future can be avoided.

What is love? Each of us asked this question more than once - and each time he could not express it in words. Why does this feeling visit a person, what is the secret of his power over us, how to determine that what we feel for another person is that same love?

What does love mean?

This is perhaps the most intimate feeling that a person can experience in relation to another person. Love is an irresistible attraction to another person, a desire to be with him, to take care and protect, to sacrifice oneself for the sake of a loved one - and at the same time not to feel dependent, to be internally free, to remain oneself. Love is impossible without mutual respect, care, fidelity, responsibility.

Far from each of us is given to know true love - after all, only a few are ready for a deep knowledge of love and constant work to preserve its strength throughout for long years. As a rule, a person treats love in one way or another selfishly, enjoying only positive emotions from this feeling, and when love encounters inevitable obstacles - refuses it.

What is the meaning of love? It is believed that only a loving person is able to understand another person and accept him as he is, with all the advantages and disadvantages. Love is considered one of the components of human socialization and is characteristic exclusively for homo sapiens - it is likely that it was the ability to love, and not to work, that made “man out of a monkey”. Without love, a person cannot understand others and himself, find a place for himself in this world, and enjoy life. This is an unfortunate person, deprived of the main joy of life. And only a loving person will be able to know life in all its glory, to feel the fullness of feelings that can be experienced in relation to another person.

It is difficult to answer unequivocally the question, what is the essence of love. Despite existing definitions, love for each person is individual and can inspire to completely different actions, actions, emotions. For some, this is a source of inspiration, a stimulus for creativity. For others, it is a destructive force, exhausting and not bringing joy (in most cases this applies to unrequited love). For the third - it's just bliss and complete dissolution in another person.

Love stands apart from others human feelings, differing from them in their spirituality, sublimity, motivation for creation and self-improvement. One of the main “symptoms” of love is when a person gets more pleasure from what he gives than from what he receives, while not demanding anything in return. It's about not about material things, and about the spiritual - roughly speaking, loving, we give our life to a person, because from now on all thoughts, all joys and sorrows are connected with a loved one. That is why it cannot be called loving person relating to love only from a consumer point of view, striving only to receive his attention and care from another person.

Typology of love

In search of an answer to the question "What is love?" people have been around since ancient times. Even the ancient Greeks brought out a whole classification of types of love, which is quite reasonable and has not lost its relevance in our time. According to this typology, love is of the following types:

- "eros" - love-passion, the constant companions of which are the predominance of the sensual side, the physiological need for each other, pathos, jealousy, complete dedication and sacrifice, in which a person loses his own "I", completely dissolving in the object of love;

- "Filia" - love-friendship, based on the spiritual component of the relationship. This is love-sympathy that arose as a result of the communication of two people who were tied common interests, views on life, mutual understanding and mutual respect;

- "storge" - love, which is based on family ties. It is love between husband and wife, parents and children, brother and sister. Storge - tender and calm love, based on mutual trust;

"agape" - reasonable love, based on an objective assessment of the merits and demerits of a loved one. In this love, there is no place for feelings and emotions - the mind takes over. Perhaps rational love is not as poetic as passionate eros, but it is more durable and creative.

What is the essence of love - the opinion of scientists

Scientists have their own view of what love means. According to the latest research by anthropologists, love is just a chemical and biological process that takes place in the human body.

Yes, during passionate love the brain produces dopamine, a substance that increases excitability, giving a feeling of emotional uplift. The production of this substance is unstable, it lasts from 6 months to 3 years, and this time is usually enough for lovers to tie their lives to reproduce.

Subsequently, the production of dopamine stops, the passion dulls, and the spouses sigh, saying that "everything is stuck, and love is gone." In fact, everything is not so sad - dopamine can be produced in the brain as a result of new sensations. To do this, you must not forget to bring romance into relationships throughout your life together.

The meaning of love for each of us lies in something of its own, intimate and inexpressible in words. Love is multifaceted like no other human feeling. A person who knows true love is happy, but even more happy is the one who was able to keep it after many years.

Love it is, to put it in your own words, a feeling in your heart for another person, of the opposite sex.

Love is a divine power, the meaning of a person’s life, when he yearns, is sexually involved in the person he loves, is illumined to do good to him, and can sacrifice himself for the sake of his beloved, this is the real Love.

Love is an inexhaustible force that lives with a person and moves him towards harmony, unity and tolerance.

When a person loves, all the doors that were closed in front of him open before him, and the fragrance of a flower comes from him, attracting all that is good. He enjoys life with naturalness and ease.

Love is a weapon that penetrates the very heart but, without hurting it, leaves a mark.

Love is a place of divine power on earth in your heart that will carry you to the path of truth.

Love is when it connects two hearts into a single whole and can make you happy.

Love- this is when you do not need anything from a loved one, and you completely give yourself to him, without asking for anything in return.

What will happen if fall in love human? You will begin to understand and forgive him, accept him as he is.

Love- this is the basis of the whole world and humanity, this is the meaning of our whole life, without love there is no happiness.

What is love in my understanding, in my own words?

Love- this is the greatest energy that moves humanity in the right direction towards the One God and light, illuminating it.

Love is a game with its incredible rules, if you understand the essence games, you will win, you will be happy, and if you do not understand, you will suffer a loss.

Love- it is not predictable in its beginning and is beautiful in itself. But what if the love is not mutual? Love God more than anyone - be it, and he will definitely show you a direct path to mutual love with the person you love.

Love generates friendship, desire and closeness of bodies and merging together.

Love- it's like a fiery river flowing from the depths of your soul and covering your entire body from the very top of your head to the tips of your toes.

Love- this is when you admire the existence of another person on earth, and you are drawn to him like a magnet. You are ready to sacrifice yourself for the sake of a loved one.

What is love in my mind and I speak in my own words?

Love- this is a gift to us from the Most High God, dear and merciful.

Love- it's like in a wonderful fairy tale life and death, without love there is no life on earth.

Love- This wonderful feeling, shrouded in a majestic mystery, which you must learn with some effort and diligence.

Love- this is when you are understood, caressed gentle hands and kiss with enticing lips.

Love is bliss in the middle of the night, caressing your mind and heart.

Love is the ability to pronounce your name in a special way.

Love- this is when a man and a woman enjoy smelling the smell of their bodies and enjoy it.

Love- this is when you kiss passionately, without getting tired, and you never want to leave.

Love- this is when you give yourself without a trace, when your strings vibrate in unison, and you are in infinite peace, like behind a stone wall, and you feel in harmony with it.

What is love in my admiration, and repeating my words?

Love- this is what makes us suffer, but you feel absolutely happy.

Love- this is when it is warm and happy at heart, merging with a person together.

Love- this is when you wake up with a smile on your face with a slight breath of morning coolness and a gentle caressing ray of the sun.

Love manifests itself in his words, love manifests itself in deeds, love manifests itself in his desires and actions.

Love- this is the strongest, most beautiful feeling in the world, and you need to live it while enjoying it.

Love is life in another space and dimension.

Love sometimes it is hard, it brings pain, tears, suffering, hatred, exhausts the heart and the person goes crazy.

Love it is like a fire it must be constantly maintained, if you forget about it, sooner or later it will go out.

Love she is like a bright sun, calmness and self-confidence, the flight of the soul and a terrible dependence on another person.

Love- this is the beginning of all beginnings, great and inexplicable, it comes unexpectedly and remains forever.

Love- it's a wonderful feeling! Love is our whole life. If you know how to love, then you are happy. And those who do not know how and do not want to love are callous, distant and uninteresting people. Love as much as you can, with all your heart. Love, coloring your life in bright colors. More than once she saved, saves many hearts! Love is an eternal, lasting, most important, important feeling for every person. Give your love to others. Love and be loved! And watch the VIDEO.

Love is... in the statements and quotes of philosophers, writers, psychologists, sociologists, artists, humanists, theologians, teachers, historians, statesmen and public figures, scientists, poets, and simply famous and prominent people. Bright, interesting with humor and serious, deep, and sometimes very simple ... In general, the most interesting thoughts about what love is.
Love is a delightful deceit that a person agrees to willingly.
Alexander Pushkin

Love is selfishness together.
Germaine de Stael

Love is... a manifestation of the immortal principle in a mortal being.
Plato

Love is mutual sacrilege.
Karol Izhikovsky

Love is happiness that trembles with fear.
D. H. Gibran

Love is an ocean of feelings surrounded by costs everywhere.
Thomas Dewar

Paul Geraldi

Love is happiness that is given to each other.
George Sand

Love is a short period of time when a person of the opposite sex has exactly the same opinion about us as we do.
Magdalena the Pretender

Love is a priceless gift. It's the only thing we can give and yet you keep it.
Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy

Paulo Coelho

Love is a reward received without merit.
Ricarda Huh

Love is not the mournful groan of a distant violin, but the triumphant creak of bed springs.
Sydney Pearlman

Love is the most proven way to overcome shame.
Sigmund Freud

Love is a card game in which both are bluffing: one to win, the other not to lose.
Henri Renier

Love is a miracle of civilization.
Stendhal

Love is the way to hear "Darling" or "Darling" after having sex.
Julian Barnes

Love is the triumph of the imagination over the intellect.
Henry Louis Mencken

Love is all. And that's all we know about her.
Emily Dickinson

Love is the energy of life.
Robert Browning

To love is not to look at each other, to love is to look together in the same direction.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Love is all you need.
John Lennon

Love - it's solid traps and traps. When she wants to make herself known, she shows only her light, and hides and hides the shadows generated by it.
Paulo Coelho

To love is to affirm the unique existence of another person.
S. L. Rubinstein

Love is the greatest feeling that generally works miracles, that creates new people, creates the greatest human values.
A. S. Makarenko

Love is a gift from heaven that requires to be cherished by the most perfect souls and my most beautiful imagination. Fervent pleasures are lulled by marriage, the gift of heaven is lost under the influence of gross and tasteless depravity, and profit turns it into a commodity.
K. Helvetius

Love is not one of the attributes of the Divine, but the sum of all His attributes.
D. Gibbons

Love is a violent attraction to that which runs away from us.
M. Montaigne

Love is always a path to another, the search for "other oneself" ...
N. A. Berdyaev

Love is the shortest way from one heart to another: a straight line.
M. Bedil

Love is the consciousness of true life, one in all. Children, coming from THERE, still clearly feel this life and its only fully accessible manifestation in love. Consciousness of one's personal life is self-deception. Old age gradually frees from it. Completely liberates death.
L. N. Tolstoy

Love is the center of human life.
T. Gyatso
To love means to look in the same direction together? Perhaps, but only if they are not watching TV.
Gilbert Sesbron

To love means to stop comparing.
Bernard Grasse

François Mauriac

Love is the most best cosmetics.
Gina Lollobrigida

Love is not the beginning of life, but only the recognition of the consciousness of the beginning of life, God.
L. N. Tolstoy

Love is the highest and ultimate goal that a person can aspire to. The salvation of man lies in love and is achieved through love.
V. E. Frankl

Love is a delusion that one woman is different from another.
Henry Louis Mencken

Love is the best cosmetic. But cosmetics are easier to buy.
Yves Saint Laurent

Love is a toothache in the heart.
Heinrich Heine

What is love? .. Probably, this is a mosaic of feelings from which not a single pebble can be thrown out.
A. B. Mariengof

To love is to see a miracle invisible to others.
F. Mauriac

Love is a miracle, a moral miracle.
V. V. Rozanov

Love is the real Orpheus, who lifted humanity from the animal state.
E. Renan

Love is a reverent, religious perception of a particular living being, seeing in him some kind of divine principle. Any true love- it doesn't matter whether the lover himself is aware of this or not - there is in its very essence a religious feeling.
S. L. Frank

Your love is my altar.
Euripides

Love is the highest reality, the root cause ... Love is final goal world history, amen to the universe.
Novalis

Love is eternal prosperity.
John of the Ladder

Love is pain, love is scars, love is wounds and marks.
Love hurts, love scars, love wounds and marks
Nazareth

Love is the true, highest good, which resolves all the contradictions of life and not only destroys the fear of death, but also attracts a person to the sacrifice of his existence for others.
L. N. Tolstoy

Love is the cause of all blessings.
Ephraim Sirin

... Love is generally a precious blessing, happiness and consolation of human life - moreover, its only true basis ...
S. L. Frank

Love is good. Not without reason, in fact, at all times, among almost all civilized peoples, love in the broadest sense and the love of a husband for his wife is called love. If love is often cruel and destructive, then the reason is not in love itself, but in the inequality of people.
A. P. Chekhov

The highest value on this Earth is Love.
A. A. Blok

To love means to wish for another what you consider to be good, and to wish, moreover, not for your own sake, but for the sake of the one you love, and to try as far as possible to deliver this good to him.
Aristotle

Love is the salt of virtues.
Ephraim Sirin

Love is the sister of high thoughts.
S. P. Schipachev

Love according to God is a transition from evil.
John of the Ladder

Love is the enemy of excess. In it, as in food, one should give preference not to quantity, but to quality.
A. and S. Golon

Love is, as it were, a kind of tender singing from the depths; but the depth of the inspirited instinct can be touched by the temptation and sing from the pleasure of sin.

Love is kindness - not only because it surrounds its beloved object with sympathy, cares about it, suffers and rejoices with it, but also because love, in itself, gives a person happiness and causes a need in a happy person - to make everyone happy and everyone around you and enjoy this other people's happiness as a radiation of your own.
I. A. Ilyin

To love is the only meaning of life. And the meaning of meanings, the meaning of happiness.
P. Verlaine

Love is the last and most severe childhood illness.
author unknown

Love is our second birth.
O. Balzac

Love is rebirth.
V. V. Rozanov

Love is the treasury of happiness: the more it gives, the more it receives.
W. Muller

Love is nothing but the desire for happiness for another person.
D. Hume

Love is fire, longing for happiness.
His irresistible power
Every creature is subject.
Lope de Vega

Love is the motto of human life.
D. D. Minaev

Love is life itself; but not an unreasonable, suffering and perishing life, but a blissful and endless life.
L. N. Tolstoy

…Love is the root of life.
V. V. Rozanov

Love is the sweet core of life.
German

Love is the apotheosis of life.
A. I. Herzen

Love is the one and complete activity of true life.
L. N. Tolstoy

Love is the will to live.
M. Gorky

Love is an ideal thing, marriage is real; mixing the real with the ideal never goes unpunished.
Johann Wolfgang Goethe

Love is like universal energy life, which has the ability to turn evil passions into creative passions.
Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev

Love is the great ornament of life. She makes nature bloom, play with colors, sing wonderful songs, dance magnificent dances.
A. V. Lunacharsky

Love is the apotheosis of beauty, beauty is the woman herself.
D. D. Minaev

Love is a magnificent, graceful flower, crowning and ending an individual life; but he, like all flowers, must be opened on one side, better side his to the sky of the universal.
A. I. Herzen

Love is the connection of a loved one with one's most sincere ideas, the realization through him of one's meaning of life.
A. P. Platonov

Love is both the meaning and the goal of the whole essence of existence, -
Any living being lives by love alone.
Hafiz Khorezmi

… But if love… is a striving for the eternal possession of the good, then along with the good, it is impossible not to desire immortality. So, love is the desire for immortality.
Socrates

Love is the greatest reward for a person.
D. D. Minaev

Love represents active action rather than passive acceptance. It is “standing in…”, not “falling somewhere”. In the very general view the active character of love can be described by the statement that love means first of all to give and not to receive.
Erich Fromm

Love is a priceless gift. This is the only thing that can be given, and yet you will have it.
author unknown

Love is a free gift.
I. Goethe

Love is the most morning of our feelings.
B. Fontenelle

Love is an intimate and personal sphere of life in which society does not dare to interfere.
Nikolai Berdyaev

Love is the most powerful of human feelings; friendship is the noblest and most delicate addition to love.
Unknown author

Love is the highest feeling; it is as much higher than friendship as religion is higher than speculation, as much as the enthusiasm of a poet is higher than the thought of a scientist. Religion and love, they do not take a part of the soul, they do not need a part, they do not look for a modest corner in the heart, they need the whole soul, they do not share, they intersect, merge.
A. I. Herzen

Love is not just a subjective feeling, by virtue of which what we love “likes” us, gives us joy or pleasure. The object of love often, on the contrary, gives us grief and suffering ...
S. L. Frank

Love is a wonderful, exciting, touching feeling.
J. Bedier

Love is the child of illusion and at the same time the mother of disappointment.
Miguel de Unamuno

Love is the most intimate and inviolable feeling.
V. A. Sukhomlinsky

Love is the truest kindred.
And there is no closer in the world to him.
Lope de Vega

Love is a man's attempt to be satisfied with a single woman.
P. Geraldi

Love is the main way to escape from loneliness, which torments most men and women for almost their entire lives.
B. Russell

Love is a ring, and a ring has no end.
Russian folk proverb

Helpful Hints

Love is a word that at least once flashed through the head of every person. It either causes joy, or scares, or motivates.

The existence of love and its meaning has been debated for centuries. So what is love?

Poets and scientists tried to find an answer to this question. And we can say for sure that the answer to this question IS - love is ... in fact, it all depends on which side to approach this issue.

Different definitions of love

From a romantic point of view: love is perfection

What is love for you? Do you think that love is worth without disagreement? Do you think that partners should always understand each other? If you can explain love in this way, then you are a true romantic.

You may open up, but still it is worth noting that love at first sight does not exist. In fact, to find love you need to work hard. According to Sally Connolly, a psychotherapist with 30 years of experience, if you insist on the idea perfect love it will only hurt the relationship.

From the scientist's point of view: the essence of love lies in the sense of smell

If you like to analyze, then perhaps love is related to biology for you. There is even scientific evidence for the existence of love. Scientists from the University of Bern in Switzerland conducted a study based on the connection between our sense of smell and attraction to another person. They found that major histocompatibility complex(MHC) in human DNA (a region of the genome that plays big role V immune system and development of immunity) causes love for another person.

From a realist's point of view: love is like an ocean

For a realist, love is comparable to the ocean with its constant waves, ebbs and flows. This explanation of love is the most correct. Give precise definition love is difficult. It takes work to love and keep love, but the reward is a healthier, more fulfilling, and lasting relationship.

What is not love

Even though the definition of love depends on how you look at it, there are a few specific things that should definitely not be confused with love.

Love and love

Falling in love is a feeling that occurs at the very beginning of a relationship. The kind of love that keeps us awake at night, distracts us during the day and constantly invigorates us, is not really love, but falling in love, which is very easy to confuse with love. Many of us fall into this trap. You ask yourself "what is love?" and then convince yourself that the feeling that you experience at the beginning of a relationship is love. If you think so, then your relationship will not last long, but real love lasts a long time.

Passion and love

Many also confuse the two. What is the difference? If you pay more attention to the appearance of a partner, if you often think about "sleeping communication", then this is more of a passion than love. This is another trap that is easy to fall into, as we always hope for the best and convince ourselves of the existence of something that is not really there.

Ignoring obvious gaps in a relationship is quite easy, as it is very difficult to part with a person who you care about. If you confuse the concepts of passion and love, then you will get stuck in fantasies, instead of sinking to the ground and finding true love.

Friendship and love

These feelings can be very similar and it can be confusing. This is because we can fall in love with a boyfriend and girlfriend, or feel like your romantic partner is your friend. We spend a lot of time with friends, so it's hard to imagine life without them.

A similar feeling arises in relation to our soul mates and the boundaries, at times, become blurred.

If you're confused about someone, try paying attention to the chemistry and intensity of your feelings. In general, than stronger feelings to another person, the more likely it is love, not friendship.

Emotional dependency and love

Sometimes it seems to us that we are in love, however, in fact, this emotional dependence. How to understand it? There are several questions worth asking yourself.

Do you strive to idealize your partner? Are you very afraid of losing him or her? For you more important than attitude than the partner himself? If you answered yes to all of these questions, then you are in an emotionally dependent relationship, and that is not love. But don't beat yourself up about it. It is quite easy to become emotionally dependent, since the fear of losing a partner, as well as the desire to idealize him, are quite normal things.

Such feelings can be experienced by people who are in romantic relationship but sometimes we can go too far. Remember, you belong to yourself just as much as your partner. Love allows us to be ourselves.