Romantic love, ecstasy, and deprivation
Maureen Audrey Moore
cIRcle (University of British Columbia) 2011 DOI: 10.14288/1.0101519 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Harlequin Romance series novels and their characters |
| Topics | MDMA |
| Key points | Argues that romantic love is a fantasy construction compensating women who lack status and identity. Analysis of Harlequin Romance novels indicates that gender inequality is a precondition for love and that the heroine's initial lack is fulfilled by union with the hero. Concludes that romantic love and spirit possession have similar dynamics, both providing compensation for deprivation. |
Abstract
This thesis treats the concept of romantic love in relation to women. It attempts to show that the stereotype of romantic love is a fantasy construction which supplies compensation to women who lack status and identity. The qualifier 'romantic' refers to the ecstasy which is thought to occur within the love experience. This ecstasy was present within the concept of courtly love and it has now become popularized as the prerogative of any lover and as a hallmark indicating the validity of love itself. In order to show the relationship between the present concept of romantic love and the social position of women, modern love-novels were examined and romantic love was then compared to spirit possession. A sample of books from the Harlequin Romance series was described and status differences between characters were counted. The difference between the initial and final situations of the romantic hero and heroine were noted. The analysis of love in the books shows that inequality in terms of gender membership is a precondition for love and that the heroine suffers some kind of initial lack which is fulfilled by her final unification with the hero. It is concluded that the dynamics of possession and romantic love are similar, that both kinds of ecstasy provide compensation for deprivation, and that individuals who succumb to possession, and women who are attracted to romantic love, are in a similar position in their societies. Thus romantic love functions as a way of dealing with deprivation. Women who lack status and identity seek the compensation of ecstatic love wherein they feel themselves to be possessed by a superior man.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on MDMA, most cited first.
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|---|---|---|---|
| Differences Between the Mechanism of Action of MDMA, MBDB, and the Classic Hallucinogens. Identification of a New Therapeutic Class: Entactogens | 1986 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The Background and Chemistry of MDMA | 1986 | Historical analysis | |
| The origin of MDMA (ecstasy) revisited: the true story reconstructed from the original documents* Original documents in Merck's historical archive in Darmstadt, Germany, years 1900–1960 | 2006 | Historical analysis | |
| Distinct neural mechanisms for the prosocial and rewarding properties of MDMA | 2019 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| How could MDMA (ecstasy) help anxiety disorders? A neurobiological rationale | 2009 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |