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Destructive hypostases of love

Helen
3 min readSep 6, 2024

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Love is often considered to be a powerful and positive force in human relationships, capable of bringing individuals closer together and fostering compassion and empathy. However, love can also have destructive manifestations that lead to harm and suffering. These destructive hypostases of love have been studied and analyzed by various scholars, psychologists, and philosophers throughout history in an attempt to better understand the complexities of human emotions and behavior.

One of the key figures who have delved into the destructive hypostases of love is Sigmund Freud, the famous psychoanalyst who explored the unconscious mind and its influence on human behavior. Freud posited that love could manifest in destructive ways when individuals repress their true desires and emotions, leading to feelings of jealousy, possessiveness, and control in relationships. This idea of destructive love as a result of repressed desires has had a significant impact on the field of psychology and has been further developed by other scholars in the field.

Another influential figure in the study of destructive love is Erich Fromm, a renowned social psychologist and philosopher who examined the concept of love in his work “The Art of Loving”. Fromm argued that love could be both a source of fulfillment and a source of destructiveness, depending on the motivations and attitudes of the individuals involved. He identified various…

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Helen
Helen

Written by Helen

I’m a board member for the Harvard Creative Writing Collective and an outreach associate director for Harvard Women in Computer Science.

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