One-way Love. The paradox of loving without expectation between existential assurance and the missed encounter with the Other.

IF 2.2 3区医学 Q3 PSYCHIATRY

Psychopathology Pub Date : 2025-10-03 DOI:10.1159/000548794

Giovanni Stanghellini

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background: The phenomenon of love is an important task for the psychopathologist since love experience is the site in which the Self is formed and potentially dismantled. This paper explores "one-way love"-an autotelic form of love that persists independently of return. It may serve as a way for the person to sustain a sense of autonomy finding fulfilment in the act of loving itself - a paradoxical affirmation of identity, existence, and autonomy.

Summary: The analysis unfolds three central functions of one-way love: (1) it frees the person from dependency on the Other's love; (2) it preserves the integrity of the lover's own desire protecting it from the confrontation with the Other's desire; (3) it offers the lover a heroic and noble self-image rooted in fidelity to feeling. One-way lovers may appear as dependent on a beloved who does not reciprocate, but they are firmly convinced that they are performing a radical act of freedom: loving not to be loved in return, but to assert their own existence as a person fully capable of loving.

Message: One-way love is a strategy in which desire and fear intersect, sustaining the beloved at a distance and affirming the lover's capacity to love without dependence. Yet, this autonomy carries a cost: it prevents genuine intimacy with the Other. By avoiding the vulnerability required to share private aspects of the Self, one-way lovers evade the very encounter with otherness that is essential to the ongoing development and transformation of the Self.

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单向的爱。没有期望的爱的悖论存在的保证和错过与他者的相遇。

背景：爱情现象是精神病理学家的一项重要任务，因为爱情经验是自我形成和可能被拆除的场所。本文探讨了“单向爱”——一种独立于回报而持续存在的自私自利的爱。它可以作为一种方式，让人维持一种自主性，在爱自己的行为中找到满足——一种对身份、存在和自主性的矛盾肯定。摘要：分析揭示了单向爱的三个核心功能：(1)它将人从对他者爱的依赖中解放出来；(2)它保持了爱人自身欲望的完整性，保护它不与他人的欲望发生冲突；(3)它为恋人提供了一种英雄的、崇高的、根植于忠于感情的自我形象。单向恋者可能表现得依赖于一个没有回报的爱人，但他们坚定地相信，他们正在执行一种激进的自由行为：爱不是为了得到爱的回报，而是为了维护自己作为一个完全有能力去爱的人的存在。信息：单向爱情是一种欲望和恐惧交织在一起的策略，在一定距离上维持被爱的人，并肯定爱人有能力去爱而不依赖。然而，这种自主性是有代价的：它阻碍了与他者的真正亲密。通过避免分享自我的私人方面所需要的脆弱性，单向恋人逃避了与他者的相遇，这对自我的持续发展和转变至关重要。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Psychopathology 医学-精神病学

CiteScore

5.10

自引率

5.60%

发文量

审稿时长

>12 weeks

期刊介绍： ''Psychopathology'' is a record of research centered on findings, concepts, and diagnostic categories of phenomenological, experimental and clinical psychopathology. Studies published are designed to improve and deepen the knowledge and understanding of the pathogenesis and nature of psychopathological symptoms and psychological dysfunctions. Furthermore, the validity of concepts applied in the neurosciences of mental functions are evaluated in order to closely bring together the mind and the brain. Major topics of the journal are trajectories between biological processes and psychological dysfunction that can help us better understand a subject’s inner experiences and interpersonal behavior. Descriptive psychopathology, experimental psychopathology and neuropsychology, developmental psychopathology, transcultural psychiatry as well as philosophy-based phenomenology contribute to this field.