Love Has Its Type; Not Many Know About It.

Love has got varieties, but very few know about it. The Ancient Greeks had studied love and had classified it into 8 types.

AGAPE: This is the unconditional and self-sacrificing form of love. It is like having an unselfish concern for the welfare of others. It helps in maintaining the psychological, social, and environmental fabric that protects, supports and enhances us. Just like the love of Jesus for Christians, where he sacrificed himself so that others could get rid of their sins. This kind of love is quite radical, perhaps because very few are able to feel it long-term.

EROS: This kind of love is named after the Greek god of love and fertility. Therefore, it is generally linked with passionate, romantic and physical love. It is most akin to our modern construct of romantic love. It is a form of madness brought about by Cupid’s arrow.The arrow delicts us and we fall in love. The word erotic is derived from Eros. This kind of love is powerful and could lead to a loss of control because of human being’s instinctual impulse to procreate. Some people believe that this kind of love “burns hot and bright but it burns out fast”.

PHILIA: This is “affectionate” love, the kind of love that one feels for one’s friends. The Greeks believed that this kind of love was better than Eros as it involved love between people who considered each other equal. Physical attraction is not always necessary for love and so this was love without sexual acts.

PHILAUTIA: This is self-love. However, it does not mean that a person has to be selfish or narcissistic, that is, it is not unhealthy or negative in any way. It is being able to give and receive love. How can you give someone something which you don’t have? And if we don’t love ourselves, how could we love others. It is like showing the same affection towards yourself which you are showing to another person.

STORGE: This is familiar love. Just like Philia, it does not involve physical love but there is a strong bond of kinship and familiarity between people. It is just like a parent-child love.

PRAGMA: This is enduring love. It is the opposite of Eros and is the matured love which does not burn out quickly like Eros. It develops over a long period of time. It is just like the love of old married couples and is somewhat rare to find.

LUDUS: This one is playful love. It is like infatuation in the early days of romance. It is having that giddiness and butterflies in your stomach on seeing your love walk through the door. It involves activities such as teasing, dancing and flirting and is casual and undemanding and its main focus is fun.

MANIA: This is the obsession kind of love. This is not the good type and leads to jealousy and madness. It is usually done by people who has low self-esteem and who fear to lose their object of love. These people can do crazy things for their love and are very often destructive.