Do you love love? Do you hate love? Are you ambivalent? I get so many questions about love and dating

in my office and for my listeners on a daily basis that I think it's time to talk about it.

If you want to learn about the components of love and how it affects the type of love you're

experiencing, listen up. Welcome back to Savvy Psychologist. I'm your host, Dr. Monica Johnson.

Every week on this show, I'll help you face life's challenges with evidence-based approaches,

a sympathetic ear, and zero judgment. Today, we're going to get into Sternberg's triangular theory

of love. Dr. Sternberg proposed a theory of love that consists of three components, intimacy,

passion, and commitment. Based on the combination of these elements, he defined seven different types

of love. Now, I bet you've been running around in these streets, hoping to find that spark,

but have you actually thought to spend time learning about how it works and what your actual

needs are? Well, today your fairy god psychologist is going to get you ready for the ball by educating

you about matters of the heart. First, we're going to break down the three components of love.

The first component is intimacy. Intimacy refers to the emotional connection,

closeness, and mutual understanding between individuals. It involves feelings of warmth,

trust, and sharing personal thoughts and experiences with each other. A not-so-uncommon mistake

that I see in many of my patients is that they try to force intimacy. This is one of the issues

with trauma bonding. We attempt to mimic genuine intimacy and trick ourselves into being vulnerable,

or believing that there is a stronger bond than there actually is. When you were in junior

higher high school, did you ever stay up late on the phone talking about your deepest darkest

secrets to someone? And then what happened? After a marathon session of 14 hours on the phone,

you probably decided that this was the person you were going to be with for the rest of your life.

Only to break up three days later, after a good night's sleep, and he didn't share his doctor

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