Love vs. Infatuation
Everyone wants to be in love, but very few people know what it means. When someone sees another person he or she is attracted to he or she may think, "Oh, my God, I'm in love" but is it real love or just simple infatuation? There is a great difference between love and infatuation, and when trying to determine the difference there are at least three things a person should consider: interest, concern, and endurance.
The first thing a person should consider when trying deciphering the difference between love and infatuation is interest. A person who is infatuated with someone is interested in that person for purely external reasons. For instance, suppose a person sees someone who they are really attracted to their heart begins to race and their knees go weak they may think they are falling in love but in reality, their falling in infatuation.
Canon Love
Español: Doña Inés de Zúñiga, Condesa de Mont...
English: Similarities between lower-order factors ...True love is deeper than that. When a people are truly in love with someone else, they are interested in that person's inner beauty. They care more about that person's character and personality traits than how cute he or she may look in a pair of jeans. To become infatuated with someone takes only a second, but it takes time to become in love with someone because love is based on more than just superficial interests.
Concern is another way to tell the difference between infatuation and love. Infatuated people are primarily concerned with themselves and how the other person makes them feel. They have a tendency to say things like "I feel really important when I'm with him," or "She really makes me feel good." Notice how many times "I" or "me" is used? Love, on the other hand, is completely selfless. It is primarily concerned in the...
A good start...
This essay is a good start to a more detailed analysis of love versus infatuation. It seems, however, to be based soley on the speculation of the author, since there are no sources cited. Mechanics are crucial to any essay, and this one has a number of mechanical errors (spelling, grammer, punctuation, etc.) These could be easily identified using a good word processor (such as MS Word.) There are also some points that should be considered more carefully. For instance, the idea of love as completely self-less is not widely accepted in the philosophical or psychological world. (Consider, for example, the idea of psychological egoism.) The author states that infatuation is "very short lived." I would suggest one consider the idea of obsessions, which are a form of infatuation, but which can be very long lasting (albiet, similarly maladaptive.) For more on the differences between love and obsession (infatuation), I would recommend a book by Dr. Susan Forward entitled, "Is it love, or is it obsession."
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