Love Addiction and Addictive Relationships
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The issue of love addiction in relationships has of late received significant professional and media attention. While the phrase "addictive relationships" has been defined by many researchers and practitioners, there is a wide range of elements which fail to have consensus. Most researchers agree that partners in these relationships manifest learned behavior patterns which make life painful, but not to the extent that they are willing to leave the relationship. The prominent assumption about "addictive relationships" is that they exist because both members in the relationship seek to escape situations involving intolerable feelings of pain, anxiety and frustration. The motivation for the behavior of these individuals is typically about an obsessive need to control their environments. The members of these relationships often manifest several personality deficiencies which lead them to actively pursue and maintain same, including low self-esteem, low sense of self, other-definition, need for power and control, external locus of control, and attachment obsession. Like other addicts, they develop increased tolerance to the addictive behaviors. They cannot "act out" one time in such relationships and no longer require a "fix". They develop psychological and physical dependence on the mutually reinforcing addictive behaviors. Recovery is as difficult for them as it is for those who have other addictions. Preceding recovery, at least one partner must acknowledge
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ors. They cannot "act out" one time in such a relationship, therefore, and no longer need their "fix". They develop psychological and physical dependence on the behaviors exhibited by their partners in these relationships; and the "rewards" that they receive from being in such relationships. Lacking them, they have little sense of personhood. It is generally assumed that individuals in such relationships experienced upbringing in dysfunctional families, which for the most part had distorted boundaries and did not allow the expression of true feelings, or the appropriate expression of feelings.
Motivations of "Addictive Relationships"
The motivations of individuals seeking out and maintaining "addictive relationships" have been researched by several disciplines. Although there are differences as to the actual motivations, there is a consensus on the assumptions made about the personalities of these individuals and their relational dynamics.
Those persons in "addictive relationships" tend to have an intense need to control their environments and those within them to demonstrate personal power. These needs are typically due to unfinished childhood business involving power struggle issues between the parent or significant
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Trust Beattie, , Smalley Schaef, Addictive Relationships, Recommendations Schaef, Denial Feelings, Relationships Delimited, addictive relationships, Liles Childs, schaef 1986, Publishers Sprenkle, sprenkle 1987, Research World, relationships manifest, addictive behaviors, personal control power, psychological physical, personal control, control power, family therapy, beattie 1987, external locus control, 1986 sprenkle 1987, schaef 1986 sprenkle, schaef 1986 notes,
Approximate Word count = 2016
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)
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