Love and Relationships

• Relationships


  • Can be healthy and life giving, or negative and destructive
  • It is difficult to know the difference, especially if you are deeply involved with someone
  • Friends or parents may offer advice that is not listened to
  • It isn't usually until the relationship ends and time goes by do we truly realize the type of relationship we had
• Main types of relationships

  • Love
  • Infatuation
  • Friendship
  • Exploitation
• Love


  A relationship characterized by commitment, unconditional acceptance, trust and a deep respect for one another
• Love


  • The most challenging yet rewarding type of relationship
  • Characterized by understanding, acceptance, compromise, sensitivity and consideration of others
  • Requires patience and forgiveness
  • Long lasting
• Infatuation


  • A romantic relationship involving sexual feelings and attraction
  • Also known as being 'in love'
  • The need to feel close to someone all the time, being interested in them, emotionally involved, infatuated and possibly sexually intimate
  • Can be characterized by exclusiveness and jealously
  • Unless accompanied by real love, it will not last
• Friendship


  • A relationship between two or more persons who trust each other and like to be together
  • Friends are the people we talk to, go places with, tell secrets to, laugh and hang out together
  • We depend on them and they challenge us by telling us the truth even when it hurts
  • It is not exclusive or possessive
• Exploitation


  • A relationship based on selfishness and a lack of respect for the other person
  • Takes what it can get without giving anything in return
  • Gives no respect
  • Misuses and abuses people, taking one another for granted, taking advantage of someone's weaknesses
  • Ranges from severe cases such as rape, incest, pornography, prostitution and child abuse to taking out a boy/girl to look good or be popular or get back at someone
• The four types of Greek Love (Review)

  • Eros - Love you feel when you 'fall in love', also physical/sexual attraction
  • Storge - Innate love someone feels, e.g. a mother/father for a child
  • Philia - Friendship love, love between people who have things in common
  • Agape - Selfless, compassionate love, love without any conditions, Christian love
• Negative types of love

  • Materialistic Love - love of material things such as money, items, cars and rich/worldly possessions
  • Self-love (narcissism) - the love of oneself