https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9445-7591
This special issue focuses on the complex interconnections of love, identity, and meaning across the life span in cultural and transcultural perspectives. It aims to explore love in the context of identity development and meaning-making throughout the different life phases as well as the complex inter-relationships of these concepts.
Love is an act of giving by responding to the needs and well-being of the other, whereas a love relationship is a mature union of two individuals becoming one yet remaining two (Fromm, Citation1956). However, this special issue does not only focus on love as in (Westernized) romantic relationships, but also includes other concepts of love, such as philia, agape, eros, or other culture-specific concepts. It is assumed that love, as an emotion, can develop and change over time and that these developments are complex and induced by various potential aspects such as meaning-making, identity development, and personality (Neimeyer, Baldwin & Gillies, Citation2006; McLean & Pratt, Citation2007). Love has been described as a secondary emotion which impacts positively on relationships, identity, and meaning-making in life (Barboza, Seedall & Neimeyer, Citation2022; Copulsky & Hammack, Citation2023). It might support the transformation of negative feelings and emotions towards more positive ones, while it impacts constructively on cognition and behaviour as well (Mayer & Vanderheiden, Citation2021).
In this special issue, the authors explore love across the life span in various contexts. Thereby, identity development is a dynamic process in which individuals develop a complex understanding and unique view about themselves (Erikson, Citation1950). The development of one’s identity is influenced by various factors, such as by personality traits, values, up-bringing, relationships, but also socio-cultural group membership or environmental factors (Mayer & Barnard, Citation2015). This special issue studies love in different phases and areas of life as well as fields of action. The editors and authors aim at providing new insights into love from diverse cultural, psychological, psychiatric, and pedagogical perspectives. This special issue includes empirical, theoretical, and conceptual articles on love from theoretical and applied prospects, and thereby adds to expand the discourses on love in the context of meaning-making and identity development in cultural and transcultural perspectives. In the following, an overview on the articles published in this special issue are given.
The first five articles deal with the concept of love in human relationships. The following four articles focus on love in work contexts in qualitative and quantitative studies. The last two contributions in this special issue take theory building research constructs and love in psychobiographical perspective into sight.
Love and relationships
The first article ‘Romantic love in intercultural couples: challenges and coping’, written by Claude-Hélène Mayer, explores the concept of romantic love in transcultural couples and investigates the qualities that help transcultural couples succeed in their relationships. It uses a qualitative research design and provides insights into the perspectives of couples on their intercultural relationship. The article highlights challenges intercultural couples experience and describes their coping mechanism and how they deal with extraordinary challenges based on cultural and intercultural issues.
William Jankowiak asks the question: ‘Is the pair bond a human universal?’ and highlights the increasing interest in exploring the viability of forming a polyamour (or plural love) arrangement which arises out of a relentless interest in wanting to achieve a more fulfilling marriage that is not grounded in a pair bond arrangement. The author argues that humans, unlike most mammals who are notoriously resistant in forming a pair bond, are exceptions in their preference for establishing a pair bond.
The article of Willie van Peer analyses the concept of jealousy (as different from envy) in romantic and sexual relationships. It demonstrates that jealousy is both logically and empirically untenable, as it is (1) a self-contradictory emotion and (2) a self-destructive activity. Willie van Peer reflects upon jealousy in a cultural perspective. Jealousy is seen as an expression of love, while in reality it is an emanation of possessive feeling void of affection for the person ‘loved’. A thorough cultural analysis, coupled to recently available DNA analyses, however, reveal a wholly different picture of extra-pair offspring, fully undermining the foundations upon which the notion of jealousy is based. The author discusses the latest research on jealousy in his article.
According to Paul T. P. Wong and Claude-Hélène Mayer, love is the core of human experience and central to our meaning in life and wellbeing, yet it is also a complex concept full of ambiguity and contradiction. This article clarifies such questions as ‘What is the meaning of life? Why is it so important to us?’ Then, it explains why love is both suffering and essential for happiness and mental health and finally it identifies the major types of love and clarifies which types are constructive and which types are destructive.
Charles T. Hill, Shanti Sage Nelson, and Daniel Perlman focus in their article on the question ‘What influences judgements of physical attractiveness? Ten components in an attractiveness halo model’. They point out that judgements of physical attractiveness are based on appearance, but are influenced by and affect more than just physical features of the face and body (e.g. clothing and personality traits). This is explored in new analyses of data from three previously published studies. The study identifies ten components of attractiveness that are inter-related, including physical, emotional, sexual, sensory, intellectual, behavioural, observer, situation, reciprocity, and time. Aspects of the halo model are supported by analyses of the three studies, generalizing comprehensive attractiveness halo effects across time, identities, cultures, and relationship types.
Love in work contexts
The following article, authored by Elisabeth Vanderheiden, deals with the topic of love in the context of adult education and pedagogical love. Its purpose is to explore the role of love as a constituent of pedagogical professionalism, called pedagogical love. A study is presented which was conducted in German contexts and which is discussed in terms of love and its critical implications in educational contexts.
The article of Bianca Victor and Claude-Hélène Mayer focuses on the coping mechanisms individuals used to manage this difficult situation. It thereby researches the impact of the love for pets on the situation to manage the remote work situation. The aim of this article is therefore to respond to the research question how the love for pets contributed to managing the challenges of remote work situations for employees working from home during COVID-19.
Warren TenHouten presents his research on ‘Love’s place in the spectrum of affect, one of 24 secondary emotions: implications for psychiatry’. The author uses the psycho-evolutionary theory of emotions by Robert Plutchik and extends it to social psychiatry by Henry Kellerman. The author discusses the theory through a four-fold behavioural-action profile, or ethogram, representing the valenced adaptive reactions to problems of life which define the eight primary emotions. The problem of identity is addressed by acceptance and disgust; temporality, by joy–happiness and sadness; hierarchy, by anger and fear; and territoriality, by anticipation and surprise. Using a hierarchical classification system, love is defined as a secondary-level emotion, a mixture of joy and acceptance
Claude-Hélène Mayer, Elisabeth Vanderheiden, and Yasu Kotera present a study within the intercultural workplace, ‘Comparing work mental health between Germany and Japan: Mental health shame, self-compassion and work motivation’, based on a quantitative research study. Findings show similarities and differences in German and Japanese levels of mental health problems, mental health shame, self-compassion, and work motivation. Results can be used to guide managers and psychologists in internationalized organizations to effectively approach employee mental health.
Love and psychobiographical approaches
The present psychobiography by James L. Kelley takes up three main psychoanalytic conceptions of love to illuminate the psychological development of famed experimental writer William Seward Burroughs (1914–1997). The study points out three concepts of love in the subject’s life strategies and contributes to research on love in psychobiography and across the life span. Though Burroughs may not have found an optimal fusion of eros and friendship in his life, the study concludes that he nevertheless was able to find solace and generate insight through his life as an artist and writer. Burroughs came to view love is as much a diachronic process of ‘contact’ via mourning and remembrance.
Ken Fuchsman presents an article on the life and songs of Leonard Cohen and his approach to love. He analyses specifically the love concepts in Cohen’s songs and highlights that Leonard Cohen presents love as the triumph of lovers uniting and then becoming cold and broken. Fuchsman analyses the paradoxes that infuse Cohen’s poetic vision and highlights the suffering as part of the duty of lovers. He interlinks the life of the singer and songwriter with the songs and points out his search for the intimate and love within its mystery.
Finally, this special issue unifies different conceptual and theoretical approaches on love in the context of relationships, work, and psychobiography. It thereby explores the topic from different disciplinary perspectives and research methodologies, as well as from culture-specific and intercultural stances. This special issue thereby contributes to developing theoretical discourses on love in cultural contexts.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
References
- Barboza, J., Seedall, R., & Neimeyer, R. A. (2022). Meaning co-construction: Facilitating shared family meaning-making in bereavement. Family Process, 61(1), 7–24. https://doi.org/10.1111/famp.12671
- Copulsky, D., & Hammack, P. L. (2023). Asexuality, graysexuality, and demisexuality: distinctions in desire, behavior, and identity. Journal of Sex Research, 60(2), 221–230. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2021.2012113
- Erikson, E. H. (1950). Childhood and Society. W. W. Norton.
- Fromm, E. (1956). The art of loving. Harper & Row.
- Mayer, C.-H., & Barnard, A. (2015). Balancing the scales of gender and culture in contemporary South Africa. In Safdar, S. & Kosakowska, N. (Eds.). Psychology of gender through the lens of culture. Theories and applications. Springer. pp. 327–349.
- Mayer, C.-H., & Vanderheiden, E. (2021). The International Handbook of Love. Springer.
- McLean, K. C., & Pratt, M. W. (2007). Life’s little (and big) lessons: identity statuses and meaning-making in the turning point narratives of emerging adults. Developmental Psychology, 42(4), 714–722. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.42.4.714
- Neimeyer, A. A., Baldwin, S. A., & Gillies, J. (2006). Continuing bonds and reconstructing meaning: mitigating complications in bereavement. Death Studies, 30(8), 715–738. https://doi.org/10.1080/07481180600848322