Synonyms
Definition
The experience in which one individual expresses passionate feelings towards someone who does not reciprocate the feelings in return
Introduction
Fromm (1956) emphasizes the importance of the act of giving unconditional love and how it relates to one’s own happiness and satisfaction. However, this happiness and fulfillment could be at stake, or even absent, when the one who is loving is not being loved back. Although unrequited love is an experience of a passionate desire for an individual that is not reciprocal, it is worth noting that Dorothy Tennov (1979) coined the term limerence, which is similar to the concept of unrequited love. Tennov (1979) defines limerence as an experience of overwhelming sexual and emotional attraction towards an individual. The experience of limerence has many components including the fear of rejection, the hope of the desired individual returning the feelings, and the constant lookout...
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Iannone, N.E., Bailey, K.E., Nassar, S.R. (2020). Unrequited Love. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24612-3_1853
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24612-3_1853
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