The nine loves

CS Lewis identified four loves: eros, storge, philia and agape. This study identifies nine and since Christians are supposed to be into love perhaps we'd better take note?
Must say the smaple for the study was small but I suspect that nevertheless it's big enough to do the work of identifying the types.
They are:-
· A grown-up version that involves mutual trust, recognition and support
· The "Cupid's dart" variety, in which couples - think Antony and Cleopatra or even Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr in From Here to Eternity - are swept away by blind passion
· Hedonistic love, concerned with personal and perhaps fleeting pleasure, the theme of much Hollywood film noir
· Love as the ultimate connection: an essentially romantic view
· Demythologised love that recognises the need for hard work, patience and compromise to make things work
· Love as transformative adventure: the emotional rollercoaster experience of a Bridget Jones figure
· From Cupid's arrow to a role-bound relationship dictated by society's expectations - the experience of the tortured couple in David Lean's film Brief Encounter
· From Cupid's arrow to the security of close friendship
· Dyadic partnership love, in which two people become a single unit (and tend to finish each other's sentences)

Of course, these aren't really comparable to the Lewis varieties in that they are looking at couples rather than being something about human relationships in general. It'd be worth looking at them in that kind of light though; how far might they be generalisable?

And, yes, I do know the main criticisms of Lewis's four loves...
Guardian Unlimited | Life | How do I love thee? Which of the nine ways?