At all times and among all nations, love was considered the purest, deepest and most irresistible feeling, which is able to completely possess a person and give him either unlimited bliss or black emptiness, darkness and suffering. Every person in his life experiences this feeling and it is believed that there are various types of love.
But love is not the same. It can manifest itself in completely different ways, and each person carries his own definition of love based on experience. No one can say exactly what this is connected with, but there are many myths, legends and even philosophical treatises that try to at least somehow explain the nature of this feeling. That is how the most diverse classifications appeared, according to which there are types of love.
From this point of view, Greek philosophy and mythology is an interesting aspect to study. For example, there are three main types of love among the Greeks.
The brightest of them is eros. Such love involves a strong passion, passion. Lovers strive to completely merge with a person, to possess him in a physical sense.
Ludus is considered a completely different form of love. This is a kind of game with a person in which there is passion, passion, but the feelings here are quite superficial. Such emotions bring pleasure, missing the pain, jealousy and betrayal. Such love is synonymous with flirting, which does not oblige to anything and does not grow into something more.
There is another form of love, which is called strict, and this is rather friendship than love. Between partners there is always affection, tender and warm relationship, but there is no all-consuming passion.
But in reality, these are only three basic, fundamental types of love, which are very rarely found in their pure form. That is why in Greek philosophy there are also mixed forms of love, which, by the way, are much more common.
For example, pragma is considered to be a fairly common form, which by its nature is a mixture of strict and ludus. This is a vivid example of pragmatic love, or, as it is also called, love of convenience. Yes, the feelings are not too deep, but at the same time, people are attached to each other and experience some tenderness and warmth. Such feelings are very easy to control, and a person can easily control them. Emotions never cloud the mind and do not force you to do crazy things. It's just that people are well together and a drop of calculation may be present in this.
One of the most moving forms of falling in love is agape, which is a combination of austerity and eros. Such love is absolutely disinterested and patient, does not recognize selfishness and is based on caring for a loved one. Unfortunately, such feelings are quite rare. Loving people are absolutely loyal, they literally dissolve in each other, while feeling indescribable bliss. And if this love is mutual, then the couple in love will be happy together, even despite everyday troubles or petty quarrels. On the other hand, this feeling is somewhat dangerous. After all, if you take away the object of his adoration from a person, his life simply loses its meaning.
One of the most dangerous forms of this feeling is mania. Here the name speaks for itself, since mania is considered a mixture of ludus and eros. This is a very deep feeling, compare real obsession. Such love destroys happy families, causes murder and tragedy, brings pain and destruction to human life. Indeed, an obligatory element is dependence on the object of adoration and insecurity in reciprocity. And if love nevertheless begins to live together, then such a species, as a rule, develops into some other form or disappears altogether, leaving behind pain, hatred and anger. Living with such overwhelming feelings for a long time is simply impossible, since together with happiness, they also bring terrible mental anguish.
In fact, there are many treatises and works devoted to this immortal feeling. And if you study the forms of love from Fromm, you can see that he highlights the so-called brotherly love, which he considers fundamental. In such a feeling there is caring, tenderness, a desire to protect. This is a kind of biblical love, when a person loves his neighbor as himself, even if he completely lost the ability to love.
Love can be completely different, bring happiness, or suffering, throw in a whirlpool of wonderful sensations, or imprison pain forever in a dungeon. It all depends on the nature of people, their inclinations and the desire to work on themselves.