Romantic love is a form of love that is often regarded as different from simply sexual love, or lust. Romantic love generally means both an emotional and sexual love, as opposed to Platonic love. There is more emphasis on the emotions than on the bodily pleasures and, as far as physical intimacy is involved, less emphasis on the intimate parts.
Western society has historically emphasized romantic love far more than other cultures in which arranged marriages are the rule. However, the globalization of Western culture has spread Western ideas about love and romance.
Romantic love is the idealization of another person, and of a relationship with that person. Other ideas of love have been advanced by several philosophers and have been popular in different cultures.
Properties of romantic love purported by Western culture that might not appear elsewhere include:
It must take you by surprise
It cannot be controlled
It should be the basis for a lifelong commitment
It is the highest form of self-fulfillment
See:
romantic love and marriage, romantic love vs. marriage
Most of the damage in romanticrelationships occurs when for various reasons one of the partners conceals hurts and unhappinesses concerning the way he or she is being treated in the relationship.
Since there are different styles of romanticrelationship, this problem does not come up when the parties' desires are in harmony on this score, as in a traditional marriage, where both agree the terms call for the man to work and the woman to take care of the home and the children.
Since a romanticrelationship is the highest possible form of relationship, with the well being and happiness of each vital to the other, sharing is a natural consequence.
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