Affections Without Love. The Fear of Bonds

Abstract

Affection is one of the areas where the crisis of today’s society is observed, as shown, for example, in the confusion between sexual desire, friendship and love. The article’s thesis is that this affective disorder hides something more profound: the fear of others, particularly towards the establishment of a last longing bond with them. To prove it, the author first examines how the separation between affection and love depends on judging bonds as contrary to reason, rendering one incapable of opening up to otherness and learning how to be open. Secondly, the author indicates the need to overcome the dialectic idea of love in order to think of it as a choice of affection for others and as a union of two identities that transcend each other through the asymmetric relationship of the gift of self. From here, he goes on to the final conclusion: the fear of bonds can be overcome when fidelity is lived as a complete synthesis of a, humanly sustainable, affection-love relationship.