Love | /ləv/ |noun

1. an intense feeling of deep affection.
2. a great interest and pleasure in something.

verb

1. feel a deep romantic or sexual attachment to (someone)

“Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit.” – Peter Ustinov

Throughout this project, I have begun to broaden my understanding of the differences between emotions and feelings. Behavioral scientists tend to classify an emotion as something that can be read through facial expressions and cues, and due to this, it limits the number of emotions that can be organized, by many. The face can execute only so many different movements, and through study and research, there hasn’t been much evidence to indicate a distinct facial cue for love. As such it isn’t classified as an emotion.

This new approach to love is drastically different than what many of us may have been taught. William James, an American philosopher, was one of the early explorers of modern emotional intelligence and he proposed four basic emotions: fear, grief, love, and rage. Love was there at the beginning. Later individuals like Robert Plutchik would come along and discount love’s central role entirely. In fact, Plutchik categorized love as “dyad” or a combination of emotions (joy + trust =love.) This places love outside the primary scope and in a more abstract area.

So why is it on this list? Well as I stated from the very beginning this project is primarily based off of Robert Plutchik’s color wheel, and the work that he did in classifying and organizing emotions and emotional responses. Love as a dyad still suggests it has a significant stronghold over our collective dispositions, and as such it should most certainly be explored. Love is exciting because it is an emotion, for lack of a better phrasing, we created to place importance and empower our lives. It’s often attributed with favorable characteristics, but its power and hold can drive almost anyone to rage, anger, sadness, remorse, and much more.