Comparing Compassionate Love and Fatuous Love- Key Differences and Implications

Comparing Compassionate Love and Fatuous Love- Key Differences and Implications

Most of the time, society categorizes love into compassionate and passionate love. A state of intense absorption often represents passionate love for another person; this normally comprises psychological interest, physiological arousal, and caring for the needs of the other. This category of love is also is considered fatuous love. On the other hand, compassionate love is considered a strong affection that individuals have towards those with whom they are deeply involved; this is the kind of love that individuals feel for their family members and close friends (Feldman, 2018).

Robert Sternberg proposed a clearer difference between passionate and compassionate love. He categorized these into three different types of love that comprise three parts, namely: decision/commitment, intimacy, and passion. Decision/commitment involves the initial thoughts that an individual loves another person and the longer-term commitment feelings to maintain this love (Feldman, 2018). The intimacy component entails feelings of connectedness and closeness, whereas the passion component is the motivational drive involving sex, romance, and physical closeness (Feldman, 2018).

Whereas compassionate love is composed of liking and intimacy, fatuous love is composed of passion and commitment. Compassionate love is usually an intimate, albeit non-passionate, type of love (Feuerman, 2022). This type of love includes intimacy or the component of commitment and liking based on Sternberg’s triangle. It is usually stronger than friendship due to long-term commitment, but sexual desire is usually minimal or absent (Feuerman, 2022). This kind of love is commonly found in marriages where there is a non-existent passion, but the couple keeps having a deep affection for each other and strong bonds together. This kind of love may also be shared among close family members and friends.

On the other hand, fatuous love entails both passion and commitment, whereas the components of liking or intimacy might be absent. This kind of love is driven by a whirlwind courtship where passion motivates individuals’ commitment without intimacy, which is considered to have a stabilizing effect. In most cases, when one observes this kind of love, they might be confused about how the couple can be that impulsive. According to Feuerman (2022), marriages based on fatuous love rarely last, and when they do, their success is more often than not based on luck. This kind of love is considered quite shallower than compassionate love, which is likely to explain the length of its existence in a relationship.

References

Feldman, R.S. (2018). Essentials of Understanding Psychology. McGraw-Hill.

Feuerman, M. (2022, February 17). Sternberg’s Triangular Theory and the 7 Types of Love. Verywellmind. https://www.verywellmind.com/types-of-love-we-experience-2303200

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Comparing Compassionate Love and Fatuous Love- Key Differences and Implications

Discuss the difference between compassionate love and fatuous love.