This thesis is a critique of romantic love theoretically premised on the analytical psychology of Carl Jung and the humanistic psychoanalysis of Erich Fromm. The aim of this critique is to explore whether there are grounds for postulating a conception of love beyond the current romantic framework. As the critique is primarily concentrated at the depth level, romantic love is examined via the medium of Cinderella folklore, with particular focus on Andy Tennant's 1998 film adaptation of Cinderella, Ever After. Based on a Jungian approach to the psyche and psychic products, the methodological framework incorporates the three following tools: The tool of interpretation at the subjective level, in which the characters of the Cinderella fairy tale are read symbolically rather than taken to denote literal fictitious characters; the tool of constructive analysis, in which it is argued that romantic love is more than 'nothing but' a boy/girl love story or 'nothing but' a myth depicting patriarchal oppression; and the tool of amplification, in which archetypal similarities between the Christian myth and the Cinderella fairy tale are highlighted. The central argument of this critique is that while romantic love does not provide a viable model of relatedness if taken and practiced literally, the romantic myth nonetheless contains within it the basis for a fuller and richer experience of love and relatedness if read subjectively. The rationale for a depth critique of romantic love is based upon the Jungian postulate that phenomena such as dreams and myths issue fundamentally from the unconscious psychic realm, and further upon Jung's recognition of a psychological developmental process he refers to as 'individuation' activated by engagement with the products of the unconscious. A symbolic/psychological reading of romantic love brings to light that romantic desire toward another is an outward manifestation of an inner desire for individual realisation, and is expressive of the individual's own capacity for wholeness. The value of a symbolic reading of romantic love is appreciated if it is conceived that it is precisely individual realisation that forms the basis for what is referred to by Erich Fromm as productive or knowledge-based love, argued here to be the ideal and only firm basis for human relatedness generally and intimate relatedness specifically.

Boston University. University Professors Program Senior theses. / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2031-01-02

Psychopathy is a rare and unique disorder, primarily associated with an emotional deficiency and an inclination towards violent antisocial behavior. Among the various symptoms, the affective experience of the incapacity for love has received little empirical attention, despite having been established as one of Cleckley's 16 classic characteristics. Moreover, the role of physiological responding in their romantic experiences has yet to be examined. The proposed study examined physiological reactivity (i.e., heart rate, HR; skin conductance, SC) as a mediator and moderator in the relationship between psychopathic features and romantic experiences (i.e., passionate love, companionate love, Ludus love, relationship satisfaction, relationship history) in college men. As hypothesized, physiological reactivity mediated and moderated the relationship between psychopathic features and romantic experiences. Specifically, low physiological arousal for the partner partially mediated the relationship between psychopathic features and passionate love. Also, it was found that the interaction between low physiological arousal for the significant other and high physiological arousal for the opposite-sex friend moderates the relationship between psychopathic features and deficient romantic experiences. By gaining a better understanding of the impact on their romantic experiences, this study is intended to contribute to improved identification and assessment of psychopathic men. / Ph. D.

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Doctor Educationis / Romantic love has been neglected in the study of African literature and culture. It has been misconstrued and overlooked in canonical African literature, and the scholarship of that literature. Only recently has some attention been directed to African popular romance writing. The main focus of African literature and its scholarship fell on questions of history, colonial resistance, and, later, in the work of women writers, on gender oppression. This neglect is gradually being addressed. Romantic love is slowly getting more recognition than before in the study of African literature, and as evidenced in popular culture by recent African imprints like the South African-based Sapphire imprint, and Nollybooks and Okada Books in Nigeria, among others. The Ankara popular romances under study in this thesis focus on the concerns of contemporary African women and suggest resolutions to their problems. Although they are in some ways similar to Anglo-American romance fiction like Mills and Boon and Harlequin, they present some concerns specific to their context. Among these are questions of childbearing, locally relevant questions related to work and career, and contextually shaped issues around desire and the erotic. The contemporary Ankara novellas have been read against the backdrop of Flora Nwapa’s novel Efuru, a first-generation African novel written by the first published African woman writer. We see that the dilemmas encountered by the Ankara heroines represent the concerns of Efuru, Nwapa’s heroine, with some variation in some cases. Of the Ankara novellas published to date, the following titles will be studied, namely, A Tailor-Made Romance by Oyindamola Affinih, Love Me Unconditionally by Ola Awonubi, A Taste of Love by Sifa Asani Gowon, The Elevator Kiss by Amina Thula, Finding Love Again by Chioma Iwunze-Ibiam and Love’s Persuasion also by Ola Awonubi. The thesis establishes that the resolution of the Ankara novellas is different from the ending of Efuru. Nwapa leaves Efuru’s dilemmas unresolved, whereas the Ankara novellas, because they are romances, present idealised resolutions in which model heroes, who manifest transformations coming to being in society more generally, constitute the wished-for happy-ever-after ending.

Darbo tikslas yra aptarti egzistuojančias romantinės meilės teorijas ir tyrimus bei ištirti jaunų žmonių kultūrinius romantinės meilės modelių vaizdinius Lietuvos kontekste. Siekiant šio tikslo, sprendžiami šie uždaviniai: (1) aptariamos romantinės meilės universalumą postuluojančios teorijos; (2) nagrinėjamos romantinės meilės istoriškumą ir kultūriškumą teigiančios teorijos; (3) aptariamos sociologines romantinę meilę naginėjančias teorijas ir pateikiamas jų empirinis pagrįstumas; (4) aptariamos kultūrinių romantinės meilės modelių teorines prielaidos; (5) derinant skirtingus metodus, aptariama, kokie kultūriniai romantinės meilės vaizdiniai vyrauja tarp jaunų žmonių Lietuvos kontekste. Tyrimo metodai: mokslinės literatūros ir antrinių duomenų analizė, kiekybinio bei kokybinio tyrimo duomenų analizė. Darbe analizuojamos romantinės meilės teorijos, siekiant išnarplioti romantinės meilės termino daugiareikšmiškumą. Evoliucinė perspektyva romantinę meilę įpina į platesnį poravimosi ir palikuonių auginimo strategijos mechanizmą. Feministinė teorija romantinę meilę laiko represyviu diskursu įkalinančiu moteris tradiciniuose lyčių vaidmenyse. . Darbe romantinę meilę tirsiu kaip kultūrinį modelį, remiantis prof. Victoro de Muncko teorinėmis prielaidomis apie kultūrinį modelį. Sociologinė tarpasmeninių santykių teorinė analizė fiksuojanti intymumo kaitos procesą, darbe tarnauja kaip kontekstas, kuriame kultūriniai romantinės meilės modeliai veiksmų strategijoms suteikia naujas... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The purpose of the study is to discuss the existing theories and researches on the issues of romantic love and to explore the images of cultural models of romantic love among young people in Lithuanian context. In order to achieve this goal, the study aimed to: (1) discuss theories, which postulate the universality of romantic love; (2) analyze theories, which maintain historical and cultural value of romantic love; (3) discuss and give empirical ground to the theories, which examine sociological aspects of romantic love; (4) discuss the premises of the cultural patterns of romantic love; (5) combining different methods, to discuss what cultural images of romantic love dominate among young people in Lithuanian context. Research methods: the analysis of the academic literature and secondary data, the analysis of the quantitative and qualitative research data. The study analyses the existing theories of romantic love, in order to understand the polysemy of this concept. From an evolutionary perspective romantic love is part of more global mating and caretaking strategies. Feminism considers romantic love to be a repressive discourse, which imprisons women in traditional gender roles. In this study romantic love will be analyzed as a cultural model, according to the theory of cultural model offered by Prof. Victor de Munck. Theoretical analysis of social interpersonal relationships, exploring intimacy tendencies, serves as a context in which cultural models of romantic love... [to full text]

This thesis studies the intertwinement of economy and emotions within the context of modernity. By investigating how work and romantic love interact in fiction films from the period 1930 to 1955, I seek to shed light on how two cultural practices that might normally be assumed to belong to separate dimensions of life – the economic and the emotional – are actually closely connected to each other. The examination of these interactions allows a better understanding of the process of modernisation, as well as the ways in which cultural differences matter in two national contexts: Sweden and Mexico. The thesis is structured into three overarching dimensions of analysis: space, gender and class. I seek to explain the relationship between work and romantic love within these dimensions using the concepts of emotional capital, respectability and worthiness. The results highlight the differences between the national cases. For example, films depicting the Swedish countryside represent both modern and non-modern domestic spaces when judged in terms of their configuration and appearance; however, certain traits of rural characters such as solidarity, closeness to nature and equality transcend into modern society and guide work and romantic love practices. In Mexico, the countryside is depicted at the core of national identity; however, this space is characterised by its non-modern nature. The countryside, according to films, must be reformed by notions of science and rationality. Film narratives show that through romantic love, the man modernises the non-modern woman. The gender analysis revealed that Swedish films endorse the Housewife Contract in Swedish society during this period. In Mexican films, a similar contract is found in the discourse of the modern nation but films endorse a broader interpretation. Mexican films show that whilst the patriarchal organisation of society is expected to loosen its grip in a modern society, a stable gender structure is desirable. The class analysis reveals that upward mobility is a desirable outcome in Swedish film stories. Women attain it through love while men do so through work. However, upward mobility is unacceptable in Mexican films; they instead endorse class permanence.

I begin by discussing structural alienation in the United States and its relationship to the pursuit of romantic love. I argue that romantic love is idealized due the lack of community inherent in a competitive, individualistic society; the romantic partner becomes a replacement for the community individuals once relied on for material and psychological needs. Despite the allure of romantic love, the norms and values associated with it often undermine the development of intimacy, as does the larger society in which the relationship is situated. I refer to this phenomenon as the romantic contradiction. I then discuss some of the factors that contribute to the romantic contradiction, such as the commodification of relationships in a market-based economy, impression management in dating, and the role of gender in heterosexual relationships. Central to this dissertation, I investigate the dominant ideology of romantic love by conducting a textual analysis of the ten most popular romantic comedies and self-help books on romantic relationships from 2006-2010. My findings suggest the dominant ideology of romantic love promotes long-term, monogamous relationships as the primary way to meet a person’s psychological and physical needs. Furthermore, the ideal relationship is based on gendered needs and responsibilities: men are expected to provide material and physical protection, while women are expected to provide emotional support and sexual intimacy. The ideology encourages a dependency between women and men and various forms of inequality. It also reinforces individualism in relationships by placing greater emphasis on meeting needs rather than developing intimacy (e.g. knowledge, empathy) for its own sake. I conclude with a discussion of competitive individualism and romantic alienation, and suggest avenues for reducing gender dependency and alienation in relationships.

This study investigates the relationship between romantic love and marital adjustment in a sample of middle class couples. Romantic love is defined as a general disposition an individual has toward love, marriage, the family, and relationships involving male-female interaction in which the affective component is regarded as primary and all other considerations are excluded from conscious reflection. Marital adjustment is defined as the positive accomodation of husband and wife interacting within the framework of a legally established marital relationship. Middle socioeconomic class is operationally defined as a specific quantitative range on the Warner Index of Social Characteristics. This study examines the nature of any quantifiable relationship between romantic love and marital adjustment, current or future. Three views of this relationship are investigated. The first view contends that romanticism is functional, contributing to positive marital adjustment. The second is characterized by the belief that romantic love has a negative impact upon marital adjustment and is dysfunctional. A third view of the relationship between romantic love and marital adjustment suggests that the critical element determining dysfunctionality is the isparity between partners, rather than the individual level of romanticism. No author has heretofore considered this alternative.

The purpose of this study is to measure the ideology of Romanticism in men and women and determine if there are any gender differences in Romanticism. As illustrated in various past studies, in order to draw a most accurate conclusion, it may be helpful to examine Romanticism scores with other constructs. Therefore, other associated variables will be included in this study, one of which is perceived parental romanticism level. A parallel perhaps may be drawn between perceived parental romanticism levels and individual's actual romanticism level. Are individuals who perceive their parents as more romantic more romantic? A measure for intra familial relationships will also be included in this study to assess the relation between young adults and their parents, parental dysfunction, and marital relation of the respondent's parents (Lachar & Gruber, 1995). A measure of erotophilia- an openness and appreciation of sex and sexuality also will be included in this study because it is expected, though not formally hypothesized, that openness to sex and sexually-related activities may correlate with romanticism.