The Role of Secrecy in Erotic Romantic Love Dissertation

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Updated: Mar 18th, 2024

Introduction

The ideal of romantic marriage dates back at least 2 centuries where it was often in conflict with trends that determined marital choice as well as economic security for women in addition to what they desired of their childcare and domestic services for their husbands (Nussbaum, 1994). However, in the post-modernist culture romantic love is considered no more than a social construction and is seen as a manifestation of human experience of erotic passion (Woodman & Dickson, 1997). It is recorded that erotic love or spirit began with the goddess of fertility during the prehistoric world and was significant in cities such as Egypt and Greece. It is also said that the love goddesses for instance Aphrodite and Hathar of Greece and Egypt respectively had the capacity to enslave and influence human beings with the invincible power of love (Goodchild, 2001).

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La Malinche and Hernan Cortez are two characteristics who have tried to bring out the role of secrecy in erotic romantic love by taking an in-depth look at different perspectives as concerns the subject matter. The main objective of this dissertation proposal is to look at different ideas as concerns erotic love and to enable individuals especially women to feel confident enough in expressing the glorious mysteries of divine love.

Dissertation proposal

Jungian Perspective

Ancient Greeks perceived the experience of erotic passion as a visitation from Eros, one of their gods concerned with sexual love and beauty (Colman, 1994). According to the Jungian perspective, the erotic spirit is collective unconscious that manifest differently giving rise to common patterns of behavior as well as experience. When these collective conscious is active, they exhibit distinct and strange characteristic, which are referred to by Jung, a psychoanalytic writer, as numinosity (Woodman & Dickson, 1997). This is a quality found in spiritual awe whereby an individual feels fascinated and griped by unexplainable power. Juangian perspective of erotic romantic love suggests that it often makes an individual to experience unexampled passion whereby no matter how hard one tries to resist it, he/she cannot break free. This can also be clearly seen in the love between La Malinche and Hernan Cortez where reference is made of La Malinche as being the container of women’s most dreadful and sinful secrets of love (Goodchild, 2001).

This collective unconscious can either be instinctual or spiritual and neither can be reduced to the other. The connection between Eros and sexuality, according to Jung, describes the instinctual part of the collective unconscious despite there being more to eros than just sexuality (Woodman & Dickson, 1997). Even though sexuality is perceived as a powerful urge, erotic spirit or erotic romantic love is more divine-related. Jungian perspective or erotic romantic love suggest that the fatal compulsion an individual experiences is capable of existing when one is in love or not in love (Nussbaum, 1994).

Archetypal Perspective

As previously mentioned gods and goddesses of love, beauty and fertility such as Eros and Aphrodite possessed powerful maternal characteristics in addition to being capable of influencing and enslaving human beings with the power of love. For instance, Aphrodite has the ability to embrace all types of love from the most spiritual to the most degraded and lustful of love (Woodman & Dickson, 1997). Her power was not only a blessing but also a curse especially when she filled women’s hearts with a passionate frenzy. Romantic love can be perceived and experienced as heaven but can also be experienced as hell since majority of couples who have long fallen out of love are unable to separate all because of love’s dark side (Nussbaum, 1994).

An example is given of a couple who were once in love but after a period of time, the wife told her husband that she perceived him as a god in his family. However, the husband did not see himself as what he had been described as well as the wife when she was told by the husband of her exciting, wonderful and vibrant personality (Woodman & Dickson, 1997). Through this observation, it can be concluded that these two individuals are in the grip of mutual fascination where they are transformed into a god or goddess of destruction (Colman, 1994). Majority of individuals believe that marriages that are made in heaven have little or no chances of surviving on earth despite it being an experience of immense importance. Romantic love transports individuals from the everyday world into the world of harmony of the universe, eternal and divine as well as music of the globes (Woodman & Dickson, 1997).

Psychoanalytic Perspective

In historical research studies that have been carried out as regards erotic romantic love, there has been observations of longing for oneness or something or someone greater than the self whereby this longing cannot be separated from the intense craving of sexual desire (Woodman & Dickson, 1997). Majority of psychoanalytic opinions as concerns erotic romantic love view it as a form of deterioration to earlier childish states. One of love’s numerous paradoxes is that which makes all lovers have equal feelings and behavior, yet making each individual feel uniquely special at the same time (Nussbaum, 1994). This is best portrayed in the love affair existing between a mother and her child.

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Psychoanalytic perspective of erotic romantic love reveals a contrast between the longing for wholeness and pursuit of perfection. Most contrast is observed between love and hate, good and bad where the object of love has to be separated from bad hateful feelings or emotions (Goodchild, 2001). It has also been observed that once the longing to overcome separateness is combined with the urgency of sexual desire together with creation of intense illusions, erotic passion can be viewed at madness or disease at such a point (Woodman & Dickson, 1997). Psychologically, it is defined as temporary psychosis or extraordinary hallucination. Shakespeare has also quoted as regards erotic romantic love that has been exaggerated, especially where he quotes in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, “Lovers and madmen have such seething brains, such shaping fantasies…..One sees more devils than vast hell can hold; that is, the madman” (Nussbaum, 1994).

For some individuals, love may be a form of addiction or a craving for endless occurrences of ecstatic highs that are meant to suppress the pain of disillusionment and loneliness. Those who are addicted to erotic romantic love can never be satisfied with any real lover as no one is capable of providing a perfect fit for them (Colman, 1994).

Feminist Perspectives

Majority of feminists have different views as concerns erotic romantic love especially from Plato’s point of view as regards the subject matter. In his book Symposium, Plato depicts a love relationship existing between a young man with an adolescent boy (Colman, 1994). Homosexuality was strongly disapproved of by the society as a young man was expected to marry and bear children. However, homosexuality according to Plato was of great importance in inducting young teenage boys into the roles and responsibilities that the society expected of them (Goodchild, 2001). It is also understandable as to why Plato made public his opinions as concerns homosexuality. This can be attributed to the fact that in the early Greek eras, there were many instances of homosexual practices that included anal intercourse which were seen as some form of initiation rites (Nussbaum, 1994).

Hellenistic philosophers perceived these beliefs as those responsible for causing misery in individuals of the society. According to Martha Nussbaum in her book The Therapy of Desire, suggests that some of the widely held perceptions as concerns emotions are not true (Colman, 1994). She proceeds to note that parents do not teach their children how to covey their emotions for instance fear, anger or joy using bodily movements as well as facial expression and that such are presumed inherited from other species. In addition, before one gets married, they should be objective as concerns their sexual relations, taking pleasure where they can while avoiding passionate involvement with any one person (Colman, 1994). The author also argues that in the religion of love and erotic romantic love, men are usually obsessed with goals that have little to do with provision of pleasure (Goodchild, 2001). She also has the belief that men should cure themselves of erotic passion by focusing more on the physical as well as mental flaws of the ones they love.

Conclusion

Erotic love can be said to be universal where individuals experience all features of a variety of collective unconscious. While Plato introduces a difference that exists between sexual and physical love opening up a conflict a conflict that has never been subdued up to present day, others believe that love is an experience involving one’s imagination. Psychoanalytic and archetypal perspectives state that encountering the erotic spirit incorporates a process of initiation concluding in the change brought about by the experience of losing love’s illusions.

References

  1. Colman, W. (1994). Love, Desire and Infatuation: Encountering the Erotic Spirit. Journal of Analytical Psychology, 39. Pp. 497 – 514.
  2. Goodchild, V. (2001). Eros and Chaos. York Beach, ME: Nicolas-Hays, Inc.
  3. Nussbaum, M. C. (1994). The Therapy of Desire: Theory and Practice in Hellenistic Ethics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
  4. Woodman, M. and Dickson, E. (1997). Dancing in the Flames: The Dark Goddess in the Transformation of Consciousness. Boston: Shambhala.
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IvyPanda. 2024. "The Role of Secrecy in Erotic Romantic Love." March 18, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-role-of-secrecy-in-erotic-romantic-love/.

1. IvyPanda. "The Role of Secrecy in Erotic Romantic Love." March 18, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-role-of-secrecy-in-erotic-romantic-love/.


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IvyPanda. "The Role of Secrecy in Erotic Romantic Love." March 18, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-role-of-secrecy-in-erotic-romantic-love/.

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