Beyond Emotion: Love as an Encounter of Myth and Drive
Abstract
Starting with a review of research on love as an emotion, with an emphasis on romantic love, it is argued that despite strong emotional correlates evidence is lacking to conclude that love would meet the criteria of basic emotions. Theoretical developments are proposed where love is conceived of as a combination of an objectless drive, a desire for love, and a mythical and scripted representation that offers the possibility of labeling the current core affect. I argue that the basic motive for love is not so much the partner’s personal attributes, but rather the benefits of the transformative power of being in love.
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Romantic beliefs are developed during childhood and adolescence through socialization and are strongly internalized when adolescents begin their first dating relationships.
“These romantic beliefs are developed during childhood and adolescence, through the socialization process, and they are strongly internalized when adolescents begin their first dating relationships (Hefner et al., 2017; Lamy, 2016; Tanner et al., 2003).”
From Romantic myths and cyber dating violence victimization in Spanish adolescents: A moderated mediation model (2023) · cites this paper as Lamy, 2016
Cites
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“Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) measures of brain activity (Bartels & Zeki, 2000, 2004) have indicated that both romantic and maternal love activate brain regions belonging to the dopamine reward system, and regions containing a high density of oxytocin or vasopressin receptors,…”
BackgroundEvolutionary Psychology: A New Paradigm for Psychological Science
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Vytal, K., & Hamann, S. (2010) · Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience · doi:10.1162/jocn.2009.21366 · Cited by 680 · cited 1× · see citing works
“Neuroimaging studies of basic emotions remain contradictory and inconclusive (e.g., Barrett & Wager, 2006; Murphy, Nimmo-Smith, & Lawrence, 2003; Vytal & Hamann, 2010), and most of them exclude the concept of love from their scope, even along with other emotional concepts.”
BackgroundNeural correlates of long-term intense romantic love
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“One possible answer is that love is twofold, with a long-standing, dispositional form being opposed to the more emotional, short-lived surge of love (Gonzaga et al., 2006; Shaver et al., 1996).”
BackgroundMarital satisfaction and break-ups differ across on-line and off-line meeting venues
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Cava, M.-J., Castillo, I., Tomás, I., & Buelga, S. (2023) · Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace · doi:10.5817/cp2023-2-4 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
“These romantic beliefs about love, developed during childhood and adolescence, are later used to assess what behaviors are appropriate in a romantic relationship (Lamy, 2016).”
Background
- Authors
- Lamy, L.
- Affiliations
- Sorbonne Paris Cité (FR)
- Corresponding author
- Lamy, Lubomir
- ORCID
- Lamy, Lubomir
- Venue
- Emotion Review
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2015-07-20
- Volume
- 8
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 97-107
- ISSN
- 1754-0739 (ISSN-L)
- 1754-0747
- OpenAlex
- W1634159142
- Cited by
- 38
- References
- 15
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 5 · 2015: 4
- FWCI
- 8.74
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Emotion Review (publishedVersion)
- HAL (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Attachment and Relationship Dynamics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Emotions and Moral Behavior
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
- Keywords
- love, romantic love, basic emotions, emotion theory, desire for love, myth, core affect, interpersonal motivation
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