This paper is an examination of the types of emotions that one may experience at the end of a relationship. Human relationships, whether they be based on mutual attraction or mutual need, engender emotional responses. When these relationships end, they can generate a wide range of emotional reactions, often conflicting responses. Understanding some of the diverse possibilities helps make handling them easier to deal with.
Betty Risteen Hasselkus and Andrea LaBelle (1998, March) write, "When telling a narrative, we structure experiences into beginnings, middles, and endings . . . Without an intelligible
ending, the story lacks wholeness and a satisfying completion" (p. 17). Endings are a natural part of the emotional cycle of human interaction. They provide closure. While they may include painful emotions, they can also be a positive experience by giving satisfactory completion to a relationship.
Human beings form relationships for a variety of reasons. They may be drawn to one another by feelings of attraction or shared interests. Often, humans establish connections in response to an emotional reaction to another individual. Lee Scheingold (2001) "Feelings (emotions) are inner experiences of mood . . . Emotions can push human beings toward action" (p. 2115), and such actions can include initiating a friendship or starting a romantic relationship.
In some circumstances, however, relationships do not begin with emotional connections but because of a desire to achieve a common goal. Individuals may join a group, sign up for a class, begin a therapeutic relationship, or seek assistance in dealing with a problem, and from these pragmatic relationships develop emotional attachments.
Whatever the initial reason for establishing connections, all relationships eventually end, and these endings engender emotional responses for all the surviving participants. These responses vary depending on the depth of the relatio...