Darning yourself: Actuality of romantic utopia in adult heterosexual men and women.

Authors

  • Marcela González-Barrientos Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso
  • Denisse Godoy Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso
  • Ignacia Rodríguez Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso
  • Teresa Báez Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso
  • Tamara Campos Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso

Abstract

This article contributes from the research field of Love Studies, a psychoanalytic reading of the current beliefs regarding the experience of romantic love in Chile, identifying meanings and tensions that adult heterosexual men and women describe regarding the cognitions, feelings and/or behaviors experienced in their love relationships. For the methodology, a qualitative design was used, conducting semi-structured interviews to 8 heterosexual men and 9 women between 18 and 65 years old, in which the Thematic Analysis of Braun and Clarke (2006) was used.The results allowed us to identify the similarities and differences in relation to different aspects of romantic love, such as the function it fulfills for the interviewees, the limits and possible changes in the love relationship and the decline of romantic love. Emergingly, the results exhibit and describe how neoliberal market logics have permeated contemporary love affairs.

Keywords:

Romantic love, Feminism, gender differences, psychoanalysis, beliefs