Not all writing about the soulmate is positive – an expert in the philosophy of love explains the concept’s thorny history.
Figuring out what to do with the ‘Song of Songs’ has preoccupied people reading the Bible for centuries.
'Song of Songs' illustrated by Florence Kingsford/Southern Methodist University/Wikimedia Commons
The famous biblical book alludes to God only once. Historically, though, most interpreters have argued the poem’s about love between the divine and his people.
Evolutionary psychology may explain why magical thinking is so central to love.
Viva Luna Studios via Unsplash
It’s not logical to believe your relationship is “meant to be.” But believing in destined love may have evolved as a way to keep couples together long enough to reproduce and raise children.
You’ve probably heard about those ‘36 questions to find love’. Where did they actually come from and do they work?
Tamil cinema’s breakup songs favour men. Here Dhanush consoles Sivakarthikeyan in the 2013 film ‘Ethir Neechal’ (‘Swimming Against the Tide’).
(Wunderbar Films)
‘Soup songs,’ a genre of Tamil breakup songs, refer to a man’s emotional state after being dumped and are full of blame for women. A more nuanced approach to love would be better for everyone.
The love god Kamadeva prepares to shoot Shiva with a love dart.
British Museum/Wikimedia Commons
After the intensity of early courtship, even a healthy, happy relationship can feel lackluster. Psychology researchers have ideas for what can help you perk up your relationship rather than give up.
Even when everything’s going great in your relationship, you likely harbor some ambivalence toward your partner deep down. Psychology research suggests it’s not just OK, but normal.
The myth that educated women over 40 find it impossible to find a mate to marry prevails - but it has long been debunked. What are the actual impacts of higher education on a women’s ‘marriageability?’ Here a wedding pic from Cambridge Mill, Cambridge, Canada.
Anne Edgar/Unsplash
The old myth that it’s impossible for educated women over 40 to get married still lingers. Actually, educated women are doing OK in the U.S. In China, however, the story changes.
Augustin Burdet (engraver) French active (19th century) Victor Marie Picot (after) Cupid and Psyche (c. 1817) engraving.
39.9 x 49.2 cm (image), 49.4 x 57.5 cm (sheet) National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Felton Bequest, 1927 (3506-3)
In early modern times, wooing happened at balls and markets and in churches; while sex was obtained in bathhouses, inns, brothels and alleyways. Art tells the story.
Sexuality presents us with personal and private concerns that are also very political.
Shutterstock
Perhaps we can think of the love letter and other gestures of romantic love as forms or techniques that mediate the violence of time, dispossession and exclusion.