Psychology
Reckless, absurd, crazy, magical... Since our youth, we have dreamed of such all-consuming love. It can turn your whole life upside down in an instant, make you part with the past, make you happy, capture, blind. It seems to us that for the sake of such a feeling we would be ready to make many sacrifices, because passion, we think, is the main measure of the true depth of feelings. But this is the opinion of those who have not experienced its destructive effect on themselves. The one who came under its fire spent a very long time restoring his devastated soul, collecting himself piece by piece, building his life anew, freeing himself from obsession through torment. Today we will try to figure out what passion is, can it develop into love or is it just this feeling? Why do we, despite the risk of being dissolved and lost in the madness of desire, still strive to experience these crazy feelings? And is it possible to resist the power of passion?
Passion is a strong, persistent, dominant over others, positively colored human feeling, characterized by enthusiasm or strong attraction to the object of passion. Another sense in which the word “passion” is often used is to denote a high degree of sexual arousal combined with emotional attraction to a partner. In this sense, this feeling is sometimes thoughtlessly identified with love. Explains column expert, public reception psychologist Tatyana Koretskaya: “The main difference between relationships based on passion is that for partners, satisfying their desires comes first. Hence, selfishness and the pursuit of one’s own goals are very clearly manifested. Each of us can succumb to passion, such is human nature! It’s another matter to give in to passions, and this is already a question of an ethical nature and psychological characteristics and diseases."
Love chemistry
It is already known that part of the reasons for the emergence of our passions lies in the biochemistry of our body. But, unlike animals, whose sexual activity is directly regulated by hormones, we make decisions using reason and logic. Of course, “love chemistry” influences the regulation of a person’s sexual behavior, but we must not forget about individual experience, which is no less important. Congenital and acquired factors act together at the conscious and unconscious levels, and it is impossible to clearly determine when and which one takes precedence over the other. Therefore, our sexual behavior cannot be considered according to the “stimulus-response” formula, in isolation from the meaning that these actions have for a particular person. We always have a choice: to succumb to passion, allow it to take over us, or think about the cost of our own impulse.
The psychologist continues: “Science has been struggling with the mystery of how passion arises for hundreds of years, but the exact answer is still unknown. The first thing that “catches” in the object of our attraction is bodily sympathy. The second is the smell produced by the pheromone. A person does not have an organ that detects pheromone, but there is such an organ on the wall separating the nasal sinuses. Therefore, one person’s smell looks like “our own” to us, while another, on the contrary, repels us. Passion itself is a feeling that generates very strong emotions due to the powerful release of adrenaline and neurotrophins into the blood, which are so lacking in our Everyday life. That's why we like to experience attraction so much. For a person, this feeling is like a long-awaited, fresh breath, giving an incredible amount of strength, a storm of sensations, excitement, and motivation. Passion acts like a drug."
This leads to loneliness...
Passion is considered to be the highest form of love. Paradoxically, it, on the contrary, can prevent us from loving: when we simultaneously want to experience bright love emotions, but at the same time not become attached to anyone, wanting to remain independent and free. These opposing desires are united by one thing - an internal barrier that does not allow either giving love or accepting the love of another. Such extremes ultimately lead to loneliness. It happens that a person does not accept love because dreams of passion prevent him from finding and appreciating warmth and care. An independent person who does not want to become attached to anyone, oddly enough, is also a victim of passion: relationships once brought him pain and disappointment, and now the passion he experienced prevents him from experiencing true love.
Depreciated values
To love means to go through to the end the entire experience of uniting one human life with another. Passion grabs you and throws you into a completely different world, where ordinary human values have no value. “As a rule, relationships built on passion do not last long, unlike a union based on love, where their own mutual family values are embedded. Both love and passion are similar in one thing: they push a person to strong, unnatural actions in ordinary life. But relationships built on the basis of ardent passion can last no longer than two years. This is how long the human body maintains a high level of a certain type of protein—neurotrophins. Over time, it begins to steadily decline, and the old crazy feelings gradually disappear,” sums up Tatyana Koretskaya. If we cannot avoid passion when it falls on us, we can try to live it, bring it to the moment when it transforms into love . At the very beginning of a relationship, it is often passion that dominates, but then a certain place must be found for it: if it fills the relationship entirely, it will lead to their destruction.
A path is possible when a person directs strong feelings not only to his beloved, but uses them in other matters, turning his passion into additional energy. If all the passion is given only to the partner, this can lead to internal devastation.
Even if you fell under the millstone of passion and it burned you to the ground, take it as a test that became a lesson for you. Too much love is a kind of rebirth, after which, having experienced all the pain and despair, we become stronger.
Passion always manifests itself in two ways: we seek to absorb the other and deny ourselves. Like madness, passion depersonalizes the one who experiences it. And since another takes away my individuality from me, then in revenge I reduce him to the level of an object, a thing. While the relationship lasts, the passionate lover resorts to blackmail in order to achieve the presence of the other and his attention. "Do you love me?" – this is always a cover question. The interrogative form hides the imperative mood: “Love me!”
The desire to do without passions bears the name "death". Love is not always a disease, but there is always something painful in it, a certain affect. After all, loving someone means giving him the right to cause us suffering. Why do you need to love madly? The fact of the matter is that it is not needed for anything. But this allows us to go beyond our own personality, it makes us want to lose – mind, time, ourselves.
strongly expressed feeling, an extreme infatuation that has turned into lasting sympathy, subjugating all the thoughts, feelings and desires of a person, putting them in his service and, therefore, making - like passion, only to a stronger degree and for a longer period - a person unfree. The evaluation of passion must be consistent with whether it is directed towards a lower or higher value. Hegel calls passion the subjective side of energy, volition and activity; he claims that nothing great has happened without passion and cannot happen without it.
Excellent definition
Incomplete definition ↓
PASSION
from nm.patior, pad - endure, endure): the state of one who is being tested endures; passivity. In his Treatise on the Passions of the Soul (1649), Descartes classified as such and described all affective states (pleasure, grief, emotions) that the soul experiences insofar as it is connected to the body. In Ancient Greece - both among the Stoics, for whom passion is synonymous with recklessness, and in Plato ("Apology of Socrates") - desires are considered as passions, the source of which is the body and which the sage, if he wants to achieve serenity leading to happiness and flourishing of the soul , must tame and overcome. For Descartes, however, passions (in the sense of feelings, affects) must also play a positive role; they perform a natural function, namely: “to dispose the soul to desire those things that nature considers useful for us, and not to deviate from this volitional decision” (ibid.). For example, the feeling of pain warns us about the presence of danger to the body, the feeling of thirst warns us about the need of the body.
The nature of passion. In the modern meaning of the word, passion is an inclination that completely captures a person. Each person usually has a variety of inclinations and preferences and freely chooses between his desires; the judge here is the mind, and its choice turns into an act of will; man lives in a regime of democratic rule of inclinations. But in the presence of passion, the opposite is true, and he already lives under the tyrannical rule of a single inclination. In a passionate act, the responsibility of the subject may seem reduced, in the sense that reason no longer interferes in the individual’s choice of his goal, but only in the process of justifying this goal and searching for any possible means for its implementation. There is an affective logic with the help of which a subject possessed by passion elevates everything to his passion: if we do not approve of it, then we do not understand the subject, and vice versa, if we approve, then we understand. “The heart has its own reasons, unknown to reason” (Pascal, “Thoughts”, 1670). There is a peculiar paralogic of a person obsessed with passion when he evaluates ideas or people only depending on how they relate to the object of his passion. Hegel described the form of passion: “This form expresses only that the subject has put all the lively interest of his spirit, his talent, his character, his joy into one single content” (“Encyclopedia of Philosophical Sciences”, 1817); all mental tension of consciousness is completely absorbed by its goal. Passion not only directs all the powers of the spirit towards one single goal (“there is no unconscious passion,” which is why animals are deprived of it) (Kant, “Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View,” 1797). It also presupposes a wide activity of the imagination. Stendhal shows how love passion transforms and decorates its object, forming a series of images - the so-called phenomenon of “crystallization” (“On Love”, 1822). Stendhal describes its first phase as follows: “Let the head of a lover work for 24 hours and this is what you will then discover: in the salt mines of Salzburg, a tree branch with leaves torn off in winter is thrown into the depths of the mine; two or three months later it is taken out covered with sparkling crystals: the smallest branches - those that are no larger than a tit's foot - are bordered by an endless variety of moving and sparkling diamonds; It is no longer possible to recognize the previous thread. What I call crystallization is the operation of the mind drawing from everything that appears before it the discovery that the object of love is endowed with new virtues.” Finally, passion is a state that fundamentally modifies personality, in contrast to emotion, which is only a fleeting state. Kant (ibid.) even contrasted emotions and passions: “Where there are many emotions, there are few passions,” meaning by this that emotions disperse the personality into many directions, while passion locks it into one single direction.
Passion as a way of knowing. Plato in the dialogue “Symposium” (385 BC), far from contrasting passion with reason, shows that passion lies at the origins of the cognitive process. Plato develops a theory of love, according to which every living being seeks another - one of a kind - being, his other half, with whom in the mythical past they were a single being. Love as the search for another lifts the spirit from beautiful bodies to beautiful souls, from beautiful human works to sciences and further to eternal beauty- the object of philosophy. Hume (Treatise of Human Nature, 1737) will show that reason as a cognitive faculty cannot justify value judgments. Charity, generosity, and brotherly feelings may “lead me to choose ruin and destruction to prevent the slightest misfortune of some Indian or person unknown to me.” Reason is completely alien to such a choice, as, indeed, to any choice. The values that animate our actions are measured only by passions. If the passion is very strong, the individual’s loyalty to one or another value can even go as far as sacrificing himself. Reason is light, but not an incentive to action: “The love of truth is a very sublime inspiration, but a very weak motivation” (Comte, “System of Positive Politics,” 1851-1854). Romantic literature extolled passion as the only form of true life. The medieval story of Tristan and Isolde is the most famous story of legendary passion in the West: a vivid example of the irresistible power of love passion, symbolized by the love potion, which forced them to neglect social order (and above all, marriage), and accomplished with the force of fate, until the death of the heroes of the drama. Romantics will see here an example of the discrepancy between true life and the prosaic conditions of its course here; Romantic dramas usually end with the death of the heroes. Romantic philosophers like Schelling (“On the Possibility of the Form of Philosophy in General,” 1796) described passion as the desire to merge with the universe and make of one’s personality something other than the “I” (“absolute identity”): passion reveals the depth of the individual, his infinite reality, the only one capable of perceiving the infinity of the world. But this identity of us with the world in the sense of nature can be effectively realized only within the boundaries of the moment, beyond which it fades away; According to the same romantic philosophy, the basis of the human soul is “nostalgia” and “desire.”
Individual passions as driving forces and instruments of history. Moralists distinguish between passions that can rather be called good and passions that can be classified as bad (stinginess, hatred), depending on their object: inspired passions that generate enthusiasm (from the Greek en-theos - to be in God) and creativity, and blind passions that bring with them fanaticism. Psychologists here distinguish between those obsessed with passion who do not perceive anything beyond their passion, from the fanatic who wants to force another to share his passion by any means, even violence. The sociologist will note here that any passion that constrains life in society will be considered bad or even insane, while that person obsessed with passion who serves society or its change will be qualified as “a person serving an ideal.” It always turns out that “nothing great in the world is accomplished without passion” (Hegel, “Reason in History,” 1830) and that passions are the driving forces of history: “So we affirm that nothing is accomplished without being supported by the interest of those who is involved in this. We call this interest passion when, displacing all other interests of the goal, the entire individuality projects itself entirely onto a specific goal with all the internal fibers of its will and concentrates its forces and all its needs on this goal” (ibid.). All individuals have their own private passions, the most common of which are money, honor and power (examples of Kant in “The Idea of Universal History from a Cosmopolitan Point of View”, 1784), but behind “this turmoil reigning on the surface ... there is a silent and secret work in which all the power of phenomena will be preserved” (Hegel, ibid.). In universal history, “passions constitute an active element,” but behind them and with their help the idea realizes itself, i.e. the general evolution of the world towards a better social order. Private passions will then be unconscious instruments for the implementation of reason in history.
Excellent definition
Incomplete definition ↓
Passion is an extremely strong feeling that arises at the level of intuition. It is expressed as a passion, craving or inclination towards something or someone. The objects of passion are both people and objects, ideas and even thoughts. About how passion manifests itself, what form it takes in a given situation, and how to recognize it in modern world, and will be discussed below.
What is passion: psychologists answer
Psychologists and philosophers of our time characterize passion as a strong emotional outburst that takes precedence over a person’s mind, actions and other feelings. True, they are convinced that passion is a neutral feeling, and only the person experiencing it is able to give this feeling a positive or negative emotional connotation.
The fact is that a person gripped by passion immediately experiences a lot of strong emotions - joy, anxiety, anticipation, expectation, and sometimes doubt. These emotions lead to the fact that a person begins to behave in some sense inappropriately, in other words, he commits actions that will seem thoughtless or simply stupid to others. This happens due to the release of hormones in the body: serotonin, endorphin and adrenaline.
As noted earlier, passion most often acts as a destructive feeling. But a person is capable of turning negative energy into positive.
So, for example, psychologists recommend that it is in a fit of such emotions that one begins to develop oneself. It is worth doing something that you have long dreamed of, but did not dare to do for one reason or another, for example, start learning a foreign language or go traveling. This process can capture all thoughts, shift attention and, ultimately, bring new knowledge and impressions to life. However, a person does not always have enough self-control and strength to independently control his will, initially experiencing passion and craving for something else.
Although the concept of "passion" has several meanings, most people identify it exclusively with sexual arousal towards a partner or even with love (using the term "passionate love").
However, psychologists deny the identification of the concepts of “love” and “passion”, and the majority even oppose them. They are convinced that relationships built on sexual attraction, selfish, unlike love. Each partner, man or woman, pursues his own goal in such a relationship, while using the other.
Passion in these relationships acts like a drug; it grabs a person headlong, but just as quickly lets go. Scientists even set a period for such relationships - no more than two years. They believe that an elevated level of a certain type of protein, neurotrophins, remains in the human body for exactly that long. Over time, it begins to decline steadily, and old feelings, taken for love, gradually disappear.
How do you know if a person is passionate?
Nobody wants to be a “toy” in a relationship. But being an “object of passion” is much more honorable, although the outcome for this kind of relationship is still the same. And here the question arises: is it possible to understand from a person whether he is experiencing passion or is it more deep feeling. Psychologists identify the following signs that are characteristic of people who experience only passion for their partner, which is expressed exclusively in sexual interest:
- A person has a greedy interest in the body of the chosen one; manners and other external manifestations are important to him.
- Flirting and seduction dominate intimate conversations.
- Increased, sometimes pathological jealousy. It manifests itself due to an unbridled desire to possess and control the object of passion.
- A person is not inclined to talk about his true feelings; his thoughts are focused only on his own fantasies.
- Apart from sexual contacts and having fun, other joint activities are of little interest.
Signs of passion are also determined physically, just don’t rush to draw conclusions based on them. Remember that passion is inherent in everyone, and a person occasionally succumbs to it, since it is inherent in his nature. Another thing is when he systematically experiences strong passion, ceasing to control himself. Physically it will be expressed like this:
- Cardiopalmus;
- Frequent movement around the room;
- Involuntary dilation of the pupils;
- Frequently being in a state of sexual arousal;
- Slight hand trembling;
Before entering into a relationship with a new partner, observe his behavior and manners. Even a shallow analysis will help you understand the true motives and make the right decision.
Types of passion
Passion can be classified according to different criteria. For example, classification is carried out according to the object to which it is directed.
- Sexual passion - a description of its signs was disclosed earlier.
- Passion for a hobby. In this case, other thoughts and feelings fade into the background. Such passion mobilizes a person’s strength and makes him capable of performing actions almost to the limit of physical and mental capabilities. For example, creative people come up with masterpieces or new plans and ideas.
- Passion for thrills. It is typical for people who are into extreme sports or take drugs. In the second case, there is a change in sensitivity nervous system, in which a person is no longer interested in standard pleasures and joys.
- Passion for work. It turns people with a heightened sense of responsibility and duty into true fans of their craft. As a rule, such passion is accompanied by an unregulated list of responsibilities and irregular working hours.
Pride, greed, fornication, envy, gluttony, anger, despondency - all these are also types of passions, together representing the “seven deadly sins” in Orthodoxy.
Passion in this case is a skill of the soul that has formed in it from repeated repetition of the same sins and has become, as it were, its natural quality - so much so that a person is not able to get rid of passion, even when he realizes that it no longer brings him pleasure, but it causes pain. Actually, the word “passion” in the Church Slavonic language just means suffering.
And these sins are called mortal because they entail the death of the soul. Unable to stop, the human soul eventually loses contact with God and becomes incapable of experiencing spiritual joy either in a person’s earthly life or in posthumous existence.
Passion is an ambiguous concept. On the one hand, it brings destruction, since it overshadows the human mind and does not allow one to assess the situation soberly, even leading to irreparable consequences. On the other hand, passion motivates people to creativity and action, and gives the strength to implement bold, large-scale projects. It’s even difficult to imagine what civilization in the 21st century would be like without people’s passionate desire to understand the world around them. The ability to channel passion in the right direction leads to development, but the absence of this skill can destroy destinies and lives.
PASSION
PASSION 1.
1. A strong feeling, a passion created by the impulses of instinct. Passions flared up among those arguing. “After all, passion means when a feeling, attraction, attachment or something like that has reached the point where reason ceases to act?” Goncharov . “How long has it been since your people served the shameful passions of their master as playthings?” Nekrasov . “All my life I have been lost in a crowd of people, sometimes I am accessible to their passions.” Tyutchev .
|| why, with inf. and without additional A strong attraction to something, a constant inclination. “In Mavrushka the clever, why did she have a passion for the cake?” Pushkin . “The only thing that upsets me is your miserable passion for the game.” L. Tolstoy . “Tell me, gossip, what is your passion for stealing chickens?” Krylov . “Little by little, his new activity turns into a passion.” Kokorev . “She (the dog) had such a passion: whatever meat she could get her hands on, she would grab it in a minute.” Krylov .
2. Strong, unbridled love with an extreme predominance of sensual, physical attraction. “Phoebus, seeing her, was inflamed with passion for her.” Pushkin . “The science of tender passion, which Nazon sang.” Pushkin . “You give yourself to him with passion.” A.Blok .
4. Fear, horror, something terrible (simple). - I was so upset that I guess. “Passion, and that’s all! Breaks dishes." A. Ostrovsky . “Passion was told about these places: Ataman Yesmen Sokol defeated travelers.” A.N. Tolstoy .
❖ To the point of passion (simple) - extremely, very much. “He loved cards with a passion.” A. Turgenev . “He loves his low-lying land with passion.” Nekrasov .
2.PASSION 2, adv. (simple). Very, extremely, very. “He passionately wants to run up to the hanging gallery that goes around the whole house.” Goncharov .
Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary. D.N. Ushakov. 1935-1940.
Synonyms:
See what “PASSION” is in other dictionaries:
passion- passion, and, pl. h. and, to her... Russian spelling dictionary
passion- Passion … Dictionary of Russian synonyms
Passion is a multi-valued term: Passion is one of the feelings of a person. Passion, in accordance with Orthodox doctrine, is a sinful disposition and skill of a person, attracting him to violate the commandments of God. Musical passion... ... Wikipedia
Mystery of feelings * Memory * Desire * Dream * Enjoyment * Loneliness * Waiting * Fall * Memory * Victory * Defeat * Glory * Conscience * Passion * Superstition * Respect * ... Consolidated encyclopedia of aphorisms
Women passions plural (to suffer) suffering, torment, torment, torment, bodily pain, mental grief, melancholy; esp. ·in·meaning feat, conscious acceptance of hardships, martyrdom. Passion of Christ. Passion ·St. martyrs. Passion for the sake of the poor and... ... Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary
- [love] noun, f., used. often Morphology: (no) what? passions, why? passions, (see) what? passion, what? passion, about what? about passion; pl. What? passion, (no) what? passions, what? passions, (I see) what? passions, what? passions, about what? about passions 1... Dmitriev's Explanatory Dictionary
Passion- Passion ♦ Passion A personal experience that we cannot prevent and which we cannot completely overcome. Passion is both opposite and symmetrical to action. The soul submits to the body, as the classics said, that is, to that part of itself that does not... ... Sponville's Philosophical Dictionary
1. PASSION1, passions, many. passions, passions, wives. 1. A strong feeling, passion, created by the impulses of instinct. Passions flared up among those arguing. “After all, passion means when a feeling, attraction, attachment or something like that has reached that... Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary
PASSION, and many. and, to her, wives. 1. Strong love, strong sensual attraction. Inflame with passion for someone. 2. Strongly expressed feeling, inspiration. The debaters' passions flared up. Doing things with passion. 3. Extreme passion, addiction... Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary
See ardor, love, very blazing with passion... Dictionary of Russian synonyms and expressions similar in meaning. under. ed. N. Abramova, M.: Russian Dictionaries, 1999. passion, attraction, craving, gravitation, desire, inclination, aspiration, inclination,... ... Synonym dictionary
Passions are most completely overcome by purifying the heart through intense prayers and deeds. We must develop opposite passions. For example, if you develop humility, pride will fade away; if joy dominates, then there will be no place for sadness.
Healing from passions often requires many years of struggle. One of the great ascetics says: “It took me fifteen years to overcome anger.”
Whoever sees in himself some kind of dominant passion must first of all arm himself against it... for if we do not conquer this passion, then victory over others will not be of any benefit to us...
St.
Passion is a vice that has been ingrained in the soul for a long time and through habit (constant repetition) has become, as it were, its natural property, so that the soul already voluntarily and by itself strives for it.
bishop
Some are passions, and others are sins. Passions are: anger, vanity, voluptuousness, hatred, evil lust, and the like. Sins are the very actions of passions, when someone carries them out in practice, i.e. performs with his body those deeds to which his passions impel him; for you can have passions, but not act on them.
Rev.
You need to know which passion bothers you the most, and you need to fight it especially. To do this, you need to examine your conscience every day...
We must consider everything bad, including the passions that fight us, not as our own, but as from the enemy - the devil. It is very important. Only then can you overcome passion when you do not consider it yours.
Rev.
