What is platonic love and how to recognize it

Platonic love is considered to be feelings that are based on a spiritual connection with a partner. This term means everything the same as the words “romantic love”, when people are attracted to each other only on a spiritual level. And that's not entirely fair. More precisely, it worked before, but now everything is different.

The expression itself was born from Plato’s dialogue “Symposium” and some others. In them, through the lips of the heroes, two types of love are revealed, which have different beginnings:

Carnal.
Its origins are in the earthly, the lower. It is born from bodily attraction and pursues the goal of personal pleasure. Such love, according to Plato, is simple possessive; it seeks to enslave, not liberate, and narrows one’s horizons.

Spiritual.
Its origins are in the heavenly, high. Here we are not talking about the connection of bodies, but about the connection of souls. Plato creates a myth about the soul mate, according to which previously people were four-armed and four-legged, but then the gods separated them. And now these parts are trying to reunite. In this case, the goal is not personal satisfaction, but the happiness of another person. And in totality, such love allows you to create, learn and act for the benefit of society.

Plato is not so simple. It is also found in his works that passion is necessary to achieve sublime truths. That is, spiritual love does not exclude physical interaction. Even taking into account that he calls the relationship between a teacher and a student one of the examples of such love. But this is Ancient Greece, where boys and grown men interacted outside of what we now call traditional values. Moreover, the woman was assigned the role of the keeper of the hearth and the mother of the family, and not at all a friend and interlocutor. And spiritual love implies improving knowledge and searching for truth. Moreover, Plato contrasts the result of these two types of love - physical pregnancy, from which children are born, and spiritual pregnancy, thanks to which virtues and discoveries are born.

That is, platonic love is what we now call harmonious relationships, which are primarily based on feelings, deep emotional contact, implying common interests, spiritual intimacy, and the desire to make the other person happy.

During the period of romantic love, both of these aspects are usually quite strong. But depending on the context and individual characteristics of a person, they can manifest themselves in different ways and in different proportions. It is also important that falling in love is not identified with love; it is a special state that can, over time, lead a relationship to a strong connection, tenderness and affection, or can end in disappointment, distance and even hostility. Falling in love is more like a strong obsession with a specific person and the search for any possible contact with him; there is more confusion and suffering in it than intimacy.

The signs of platonic love are very simple: the one you love is important to you, you want and are ready to protect his interests and help him, you enjoy spending time together and you are looking for an opportunity to provide this. In general, this can be used to describe both family relationships and friendships.

Strong friendship is just a good example when love can exist without physical attraction. In general, the word “friendship” is interpreted too broadly, but not any partnership can be called that if there is no deep emotional contact in it. Nevertheless, there are such friends with a strong good connection who understand each other perfectly and build relationships that are similar to harmonious romantic ones, but without a hint of attraction.

Now that you know more, there are even fewer obstacles for you to maintain a relationship with the sweetest and most charming woman who, of course, you will meet on VeronikaLove!