Within a relationship
There is often, initially, more emphasis on the emotions (especially those of love, intimacy, compassion, appreciation , and general « liking ») rather than physical pleasure. But, romantic love, in the abstract sense of the term, is traditionally referred to as involving a mix of emotional and sexual desire for another as a person. However, Lisa Diamond, a University of Utah psychology professor, proposes that sexual desire and romantic love are functionally independent and also, as an additional claim to the topic, that romantic love is not intrinsically oriented to same-gender or other-gender partners; and that the links between love and desire are bidirectional as opposed to unilateral. Furthermore, Diamond does not state that one’s sex has priority over another sex in romantic love, because as already mentioned Diamond’s theory seems to purport the idea that it is possible for someone who is heterosexual to fall in love with someone of the same gender, and for someone who is homosexual to fall in love with someone of a different gender. Continuer la lecture de « Romantic love is a relative term, that distinguishes moments and situations within interpersonal relationships »