Posit: Love is subject to qualitative analysis.

[triadruid]

We can identify defining characteristics of (romantic) love that distinguish it from other relationships:

• Attraction


• Common Interests


• Trust


• Compatible Dysfunctions (thanks to featherynscale for this term)


• Within a 'Standard Deviation' of each other (thanks go to azanthia for this one)

I should explain the 'Standard Deviation' concept a bit further; essentially, it means someone who is not so far above you, or so far beneath you, that the difference is going to cause a problem. This can be intellectual difference, social class difference, religion, whatever.. opposites may attract, but similarities build resonance.

If you have some subset of these characteristics, you can have a relationship, even a good one, just not the same one. For instance, Common Interests + Trust + Compatible Dysfunctions + Standard Deviation = Best Friend for Life(?). Common Interests + Trust = Favorite Coworker(?).

And so on. Feel free to poke holes, I just found it interesting and didn't want to forget the midnight philosophy.

Comments

[cheshire23.livejournal.com]

I think common interests are important if YOU believe that common interests are important.

Back about 10 or 11 years ago, when I took an Interpersonal Communication course, I was introduced to the concept of three different relationship styles: Traditional, Independent, and Separate.

Independents, despite the term used for them, have a very high need to share common interests with a romantic partner. Separates have little if any need for this, and Traditionals are somewhere in the middle. I wish I still had the chart, since there were other interesting bits too.