response

CATS: Conversation Starters

Hi everyone! If you are comfortable; what has been something your partner said to you or did for you that was really intimate that did not involve sex? In other words, can a relationship be really intimate and not be sexual?

KC

Araceli Esquivel

Re: Topic 3 DQ 1

Hi everyone,

Wow this discussion was interesting. I was evaluating my choices in life. I have realized based on Sternberg’s Triangular Theory I can say that my last relationships did not have all three of the components. Sternberg’s Triangular Theory of Love has three components that are essential to love.“In this view, love contains three components: passion, intimacy, and commitment (Howe, T. R. 2018 pg 213).” I had to analyze more than one relationship as I am currently trying to figure out what's up with me. I have noticed a pattern or a form that I have been taking. My relationships are always lacking intimacy and commitment. The passion is always there. In the last relationship we had the passion, the commitment but lacked intimacy. It was always difficult to become vulnerable or share my thoughts with the people that I have had a relationship with. I would think that the relationships that I have been in are infatuated relationships. “Relationships that are high on passion but low on intimacy and commitment are called infatuation (Howe, T. R. 2018 pg 213).” I believe in order to improve these relationships or this relationship we both need to open up and actually share more than just the passion. I personally need to be open to the fact that commitment is a possibility. A balance of intimacy, commitment and passion would help create Consummate love. “A relationship that contains all three components (high intimacy, commitment, and passion) is most likely to be successful, and is considered consummate love (Howe, T. R. 2018 pg 213).”