Domains Of Love Research Articles

Mirra Alfassa: Completing Sri Aurobindo’s Vision

Mirra Alfassa’s influence, power, and authority are essential to the integral yoga according to Aurobindo Ghose, yet most scholars have so far refused to examine their contours. Aurobindo saw her as the incarnation of the divine mother or Mahāśakti and said her spiritual growth “followed the same course” as his, which radically universalized Rāmakṛṣṇa’s teaching of vijñāna, which he called “supermind” and she “the domain of love”. Aurobindo left key parts of his supramental vision incomplete in his writings; however, Mirra claimed to complete it with new revelations that I call the “Descendant Manonāśa Period” of their practice. Manonāśa or “mental annihilation” is central to what scholars call “Yoga Advaita”. Mirra’s revelations include: 1. a posthuman vision of a sexless supramental humanity that is evolving now and in the future; 2. this evolution is coming with a cost: the mind and vital natures are being destroyed as we are going through an anatomical metamorphosis surpassing the one that yielded homo sapiens 300,000 years ago; 3. this shambolic process centrally involves what Mirra called “the psychic being” or evolving soul, somehow stimulating its materialization into what she called “the glorified body” in her early life in France. Though Aurobindo did not make a direct connection between the psychic being and what he called “the divine body”, he thought from the beginning of their partnership in the 1920s that her body could endure supramentalization better than his, no matter how it unfolded.

Gender, Ideology and Conceptual Metaphors: Women and the Source Domain of the Hunt

As a cognitive process, metaphorical reasoning is inevitable, but not necessarily innocent or neutral. It is well known that the conceptual domains of love and sex have received substantial attention within cognitive linguistics. However, a source domain that merits further exploration from a gender ideology perspective is that of the hunt. For this reason, following an approach that links cognitive linguistics with critical discourse analysis this article examines the conceptualisation of love, seduction and the search for a partner/husband through hunting metaphors, focusing on the discursive representation of women and the hunt. In the texts studied the conceptual metaphors love/seduction/the search for a partner or husband is a hunt are activated through metaphorical linguistic expressions with terms such as hunt, chase, pursue, catch, capture, trap etc. Regarding ideology, metaphors are powerful transmitters of folk beliefs and dominant conceptions of femininity and masculinity. Gender values that show man as the privileged sex as well as sexist ideologies supportive of male dominance and female submissiveness have been found to underlie the texts under consideration.

Longitudinal Experience–Wide Association Studies—A Framework for Studying Personality Change

The importance of personality for predicting life outcomes in the domains of love, work, and health is well established, as is evidence that personality traits, while relatively stable, can change. However, little is known about the sources and processes that drive changes in personality traits and how such changes might impact important life outcomes. In this paper, we make the case that the research paradigms and methodological approaches commonly used in personality psychology need to be revised to advance our understanding of the sources and processes of personality change. We propose Longitudinal Experience–Wide Association Studies as a framework for studying personality change that can address the limitations of current methods, and we discuss strategies for overcoming some of the challenges associated with Longitudinal Experience–Wide Association Studies. © 2020 European Association of Personality Psychology

Love, Work, and Striving for the Self in Balance: Anaclitic and Introjective Patients' Experiences of Change in Psychoanalysis.

One of the most famous quotations credited to Freud is that, when asked what he thought a psychologically healthy person should be able to do, he said: “to love and to work.” A central goal in psychoanalytic treatment is to bring about changes in basic, mostly unconscious, mental structures. The aim of this study was to investigate, applying an inductive thematic analysis, the experiences anaclitic and introjective patients have had of change after psychoanalysis with regard to the domains Love and Relationships and Work and Achievements. Analyzing patient interviews, we identified a third domain of experienced changes, The Self, which refers to increased self-understanding, self-acceptance, and self-care rather than an improved dynamic balance between love and work. All patients experienced several positive changes in their lives during and after psychoanalysis. We also found distinctive patterns that appear to be closely linked to the patients’ initial personality orientation with regard to relationships and achievements. Generally, the patients described symmetrical, but opposite, change processes within the two specific domains of Love and Work. For the anaclitic patients, this indicated a movement inward in the domain of Love (from an excessive preoccupation with issues of their relationship with others toward more distinct self-boundaries and increased agency) and outward in the domain of Work (from unenterprising toward becoming more outgoing and daring). For the introjective patients, this pointed to a reverse movement outward in the domain of Love (from an excessive preoccupation with issues of autonomy toward increased responsiveness to others and desire to be establish close, mutual relationships) and inward in the domain of Work (from an excessive orientation on achievements toward increased becoming more grounded in their own feelings, needs, and desires). In conclusion, patients in both groups have experienced a reduced preoccupation with issues related to their initially predominant personality dimension (relatedness or self-definition) and increased receptivity to needs typical for the complementary dimension. These changes seem to be mediated by changes in the domain of The Self. Our study suggests the clinical relevance of focusing the therapeutic work on fostering a better and more dynamic balance between love and work, relatedness, or self-definition.

Human Love Styles and Attitudes toward Pets

ABSTRACTPets have a positive influence on humans’ physical and psychological wellbeing, as well as their close relationships. In general, people who hold a positive view of people in turn hold a favorable view of pets. Despite this, previous studies on the relationship between love toward people and love toward pets were inconclusive. In this study, we take a fresh look at the nexus of the domains of love and pets by exploring whether people’s views of love with a romantic partner are associated with attitudes toward their pets. To answer this question, we administered scales to assess human love styles and attitudes toward pets. Participants completed measures on their attitudes toward romantic love, romantic relationship satisfaction, amount of social support, self-esteem, and attitudes toward pets. Human love styles assessed include Eros (passionate), Ludus (game-playing), Storge (friendship), Pragma (practical), Mania (obsessive), and Agape (selfless). Factor analyses of the pet attitudes measure revealed two factors—positive and negative attitudes toward pets. An erotic love style was linked to the endorsement of favorable pet attitudes, while a ludic love style was associated with the endorsement of unfavorable pet attitudes. Subsequent gender-specific correlations indicated that favorable pet attitudes were associated with high levels of social support for men, but low levels of support for women. Future research might address whether pets are instrumental in the development of love styles, whether love styles change after adoption of a pet, and if attitudes toward a romantic partner are similar to attitudes toward a particularly close companion animal.

The relationship of motivation and presence of stress and anxiety in emerging adults’ career and romantic exploration

The domains of love, work, and psychological well-being are of chief concern during emerging adulthood. These interrelated domains were examined through quantitative survey-based measurement that assessed undergraduate students’ motivation, anxiety, stress, career exploration, and romantic exploration choices. Quantitative analyses were conducted to test for correlations and potential moderating and mediating factors. Ultimately, relationships between these variables were clarified. Results indicate variables such as ruminative exploration in romance may relate to stress (r=.180, p=.05). This and other results are discussed with a specific focus on areas for further research and opportunities for collaboration between campus services in university settings. Implications in this area can inform higher education policy and programs as the need for student supports in these domains continue.

Competent in Work and Love? Emerging Adults’ Trajectories in Dealing With Work–Partnership Conflicts and Links to Health Functioning

In a 3-year longitudinal study on 989 emerging adults, we assessed self-efficacy in dealing with work–family conflicts and different indices of work and relationships characteristics (e.g., satisfaction, commitment, and stress). In addition, we assessed different indices of health functioning (e.g., sick days, body complaints, internalizing and externalizing symptoms, and well-being). Latent class growth analyses revealed three different trajectories of competence with work-to-partnership conflicts over time that were related to work, romantic relationships, and health. Emerging adults in the high stable group (characterized by high levels of self-efficacy in dealing with conflicts in work and partnerships) remained in considerably better health than those in the other two groups. Emerging adults following the moderate increasing and the low increasing trajectories (e.g., with increasing competencies, starting from moderate and low mean levels in self-efficacy in dealing with work–partnership conflicts), experienced a stable commitment with their partners but more partnership–work conflicts over time. Their job satisfaction also increased over time. Overall health improved in those following the low increasing trajectory but remained considerably lower than in the other two groups. Results are interpreted with respect to the challenges but also the costs of efforts involved in adapting to the difficult transitions in the domains of love and work.

Economy suspended: the possibilities of a Badiouian business ethics

In the philosophy of Alain Badiou, ethics can only arise in relation to an evental truth procedure that breaks from the economic logic of a situation. Further, because for Badiou there cannot be economic truths per se – rather, economic matters must be understood in their relation to one or more truths in the domain of love, art, science or politics – a Badiouian business ethics would look entirely distinct from any ethics that simply places limits on certain kinds of economic activity. Although Slavoj Žižek, among others, has suggested that this marks an essential weakness in Badiou's economic/political theory, it may actually be the greatest strength of his position. Within a capitalist system, a Badiouian business ethics would then be a question of mobilizing economic resources in order to serve the ongoing construction of a truth procedure. For a business to be considered ethical on Badiou's terms, it must break – and continue to break – from the dominant logic of capitalism and its merely economic pursuit of profit maximization.

“She’s Leaving Home . . .” Antecedents, Consequences, and Cultural Patterns in the Leaving Home Process

In the past, the tasks of establishing psychological and practical independence were linked in time. Nowadays, these transitions are no longer successively manageable sequences; rather, they are characterized by fluctuations, discontinuities, and reversals. In this review, research findings on factors contributing to the diversity in emerging adults’ leaving home patterns (including early leaving, late leaving, or continued residence in the parents’ home) are summarized. These findings show that although culture, gender, social class, and education shape leaving home patterns, individual factors (e.g., emerging adults’ attachment representations or their progress in the domains of love and work), and parenting strategies that essentially keep the child emotionally and physically in close proximity are also influential. The review reveals that leaving home is an important developmental task for both emerging adult children and their parents and illustrates how linked their lives are.

Podręczny słownik przezroczystości

The article discusses an essay collection by Marek Bieńczyk, Przeźroczystość [Transparency]. The concept, placed in various context, shows various aspects and is seen in various shades. The author does not put forward a statement, but rather proposes a work to be done: to determine the modality of transparency. The concept initially seems to be mainly epistemological: the cognizant subject would like to make the world transparent, to discover all possible mysteries. Before that, however, the subject must know itself, and here the dream of trans­parency also plays the key role. Lack of epistemological transparency is the main cause of melancholy and its reverse — hysteria. The concept turns out to be important in the domain of love — the loer thinks that (s)he knows the desired person more better anybody else, that (s)he has entirely penetrated the subjectivity of the Other. Ultimately, however, the dream of transparency goes down to a slow demise of the subject: as self-discovery progresses, there is less and less of the discoverer. In conclusion of this work, the border of modality of the concept turns out to be horrifyingly obvious. The desire for transparency consequently searches not for knowledge, but for an escape whose name is death.

The Suitably Romantic Therapist: Response to Stone

The Suitably Romantic Therapist: Response to Stone Richard M. Billow1 issn 0362-4021 © 2013 Eastern Group Psychotherapy Society group, Vol. 37, No. 3, Fall 2013 243 1 Director, Group Program, and Clinical Professor, Derner Institute Postgraduate Programs in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. Correspondence should be addressed to Richard M. Billow, PhD, 49 Cedar Drive, Great Neck, NY 11021. E-mail: rmbillow@gmail.com. 2 References specific to group psychotherapy include Billow (2002, 2004a, 2004b, 2011, 2013), Moeller (2002), Nitsun (2006), and Nitzgen (2009). Walter N. Stone has opened a topic that is insufficiently developed in our literature, and probably in our groups as well: romantic feelings that emerge in the course of group psychotherapy.2 I will expand on Stone’s interesting observations by briefly noting other domains of love and also by calling attention to and emphasizing the importance of the therapist’s available libido vis-à-vis member and group. Eros, philia, agape—three types of love: sensual attraction to another person; affection for family and humanity in general; and love of “God,” or “truth,” that which is infinite and unknowable. The three types are inherent in normal developmental and ongoing interpersonal relationships. Environment releases various love potentials in each of us, sometimes unexpectedly. Our loves differ in strength and expression, arrangement and balance of elements, and fascinations. Each or all may be denied, forestalled, displaced, inhibited, or perverted. Still, and always, the three types of love provide coexisting and overlapping “vertices” (Bion, 1965/1977), relational perspectives through which individuals experience themselves and each other. Stone writes about the first type. Romance, erotic interest, sexual feelings, and sexual identity (or identities) energize the waking and sleeping dreams that shape our thought and participate in the narratives of group life. “A group is clearly held together by a power of some kind: and to what power could this feat be better ascribed than to Eros, which holds together everything in the world” (Freud, 1921, p. 92). Erotic mental relationships, variously inhibited, sublimated, and exhibited, 244 billow get played out in the psychotherapy group, contributing to the regressions of the “basic assumptions” and to the maturity of the “work group” (Bion, 1961). They spur disarray, acting out, and impasse and, more positively, group cohesion, therapeutic alliances (including member to member), and the evolution of meaning. Fero (2002) suggested that “any story pertaining to sexuality is itself a story that can be listened to and understood as an account of the emotional problem current at that particular time in the consulting room” (pp. 93–94). I propose a larger frame: Any relational exchange tells us something about the nature of the romance possible among the participants. And that includes, especially, the romance(s) possible with the group therapist. We have our own sexuality like everybody else—a dimension of our own psychic world—and we bring it into the group setting (see Hirsch, 1994, 1997; Kuchuch, 2012; Mann, 1997; Sherby, 2009). Each individual has a lovemap (Money, 1986), a very personal pattern of feeling sex and love. Person (1980) referred to the sexprint and Morin (1995) to the core erotic theme. We see, hear, and smell each other, producing romantic dreams, some unknown to ourselves, mentalized preverbally and integrated into relational exchanges. They are natural, expectable, an enjoyable aspect of bonding. Perhaps it is even essential for productive work for the therapist to come to know, appreciate , and admire each and every group member “in essentially the same way one appreciates the body and flesh of one’s closest friends or one’s own children in their entirety” (Bach, 2006, pp. 129–130). I am alerted to possible trauma in a patient’s life when I do not have evidence of or confidence in my “lovemap,” that is, erotic mental activity in myself; when it becomes intense, arousing, or disquieting; or when I feel defensive about what I am thinking, feeling, or fantasizing. When Freud described psychoanalysis as “in essence a cure through love” (Freud & Jung, 1974, pp. 12–13), he was referring to the patient’s relationship to the doctor.3 I am asserting that, to a degree not expressed by Freud, love must be requited: The therapist also must love. The mother...

The politics of love

Contemporary queer interrogations of heteronormativity are fraught with the traces of feminist contestations of the intimate domains of women's `ordinary' lives during the era of the women's liberation movement. These traces remain enigmatic within contemporary theories of public affect and emotion rather than incorporated into their critiques of the present political moment. This essay argues that the work of the early women's liberationists — their attempts to bring the personal into view as the dense, affect laden, site of social reproduction — can offer us a countermemory to the enduring and alluring force of the `private' domains of love and ordinary feeling in the contemporary US national public sphere. In order to hear the echoes of that moment — the time of women's liberation — in this one, the essay stages a comparative reading between two novels, Doris Lessing's A Ripple from the Storm (1958) and June Arnold's The Cook and the Carpenter: A Novel by the Carpenter (1973). Although the two novels were written over a decade apart, both have as their subject the dense and complex relations between political action, personal relationships and feelings within a (broadly conceived) feminist paradigm. By taking the risk of an odd conjunction, and reading the two novels side-by-side, the essay aims to open up the messiness and contingencies of an era in which both `the political' and `the personal' were contested terms, their meanings challenged, their domains struggled over, their practices altered and, in some cases, transformed.

The Agonies of Choice: Gender, the Family, and Individualization in Birgit Vanderbeke's Das Muschelessen

The massive changes that took place over a decade ago at the end of the Cold War with the unification of Germany and the collapse of Eastern European communism left virtually nothing in the lives of the citizens from the former GDR unaffected. With breathtaking speed one economic system was replaced by another, new political and legal systems were installed, and new social ground rules were imposed on the East German population. The social impact of these structural changes, which, in the words of sociologists Ulrich Beck and Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim, are attributable to sudden surges in (9), was immense and profound. In particular, the individualized society into which East Germans were inserted posed unprecedented challenges to love, marriage, and the family (Bauman, The Individualized Society). As GDR biographies were removed from their socialist life worlds and exposed to the vagaries of choice and the free market economy, the domains of love, marriage, and the nuclear family were also transformed in a myriad of ways. As these individualization processes accelerated with the exposure to what Zygmunt Bauman refers to eponymously as liquid modernity, there were colossal pressures on individuals and their families to maximize their opportunities for success and happiness in the West. Unification appeared to herald a new era of free choice in which individuals were able to avail themselves of the greater range of consumer goods and lifestyles. The advent of greater personal freedoms, however, also exacerbated the pressures on individuals and families to make the right choices in their lives, choices, for instance, that would increase their chances of success and help them attain the necessary accoutrements of status and class as quickly as possible. Not only were families swept up by a compulsion to consume (Hettlage and Lenz 191), they were also caught up in the race to acquire – and not merely of the economic kind. To succeed in the West they had to acquire the other less tangible forms of capital that, according to French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, represent key markers of distinction and difference in the modern world: social, cultural, and symbolic (The Field of Cultural Production). The agonies of choice that this race precipitated were to change drastically the nature of families and irrevoc-

It's About Time: Optimistic Predictions in Work and Love

We review our research on predictions in two different domains: (a) people's estimates of how long they will take to complete various academic and everyday tasks and (b) forecasts by individuals in dating relationships of the future course of their romantic association. Our research indicates that people underestimate their completion times. Further, people appear to base their estimates on plan-based, future scenarios and they use attributional mechanisms to deny the relevance of their past failures to complete tasks on time. The optimistic bias disappears when observers forecast the completion times of other individuals (actors). Observers' estimates are no more accurate, however; instead observers exhibit a pessimistic bias, overestimating actors' task completion times. Compared to actors, observers make greater use of relevant previous experiences in generating their predictions; also while proposing future scenarios, observers are more likely to mention circumstances that might impede the actor's progress on the task. Our findings in the domain of love were generally consistent with those in the domain of work.