Browsing by Subject "Love"

Now showing 1 - 16 of 16

The distance of intimacy : an exploration of love and loss in two plays
(2011-05) Kennedy, Meghan Elizabeth; Zeder, Suzan; Dietz, Steven; Lynn, Kirk
The following thesis is an exploration of the themes of love and loss, and an examination of the concept of distance as a form of intimacy in my plays, Yours and Too much, too much, too many.
Health and harmony : Eryximachus on the science of Eros
(2014-08) Green, Jerry Dwayne; Dean-Jones, Lesley
Plato’s Symposium masterfully depicts several different explanations of the phenomenon of Eros or love. The physician Eryximachus depicts Eros as a cosmic force that can bring harmony to a number of areas, from medicine and music to astronomy and divination. Most readers of the Symposium have read Eryximachus in an unflattering way, as a pompous know-it-all who fails to give a speech that meets either his high aspirations or his high opinion of himself. In this paper I argue that this reading of Eryximachus and his speech is unpersuasive. My defense of Eryximachus has three components: (1) Plato treats Eryximachus sympathetically in the Symposium and elsewhere, and has him deliver a modest and perfectly coherent speech about the science of Eros. (2) Eryximachus’s speech can only be properly understood if we read it in the context of Hippocratic medical theory, which infuses the speech throughout. (3) Outside the Symposium, Plato views medicine as a model technē, and health as a central philosophical concept; inside the Symposium, Plato has his mouthpiece Socrates give a speech on behalf of the priestess Diotima that agrees with Eryximachus on nearly every point of his speech. This indicates that Plato would have viewed Eryximachus’s speech quite favorably, and that modern readers should follow suit. I conclude by suggesting how this reading of Eryximachus should influence how we read the Symposium as a whole.
Hierarchies of Brain and Being: Abraham Maslow and the Origins of The Hierarchy of Needs in German Brain Science
(2016-05) Coonan, Daniel J
I tell the history of how a theory–that humans have a hierarchy of needs–emerged in 1943 from larger conflicts over the study of the brain and the human being. A stoic, yet passionate neurologist Kurt Goldstein who fled Nazi Germany inspired a young psychologist, Abraham Maslow, with a forceful critique of materialist science; in doing so, hierarchies of brain became hierarchies of mind and self. The theory is widely used in business schools today and by more than few everyday American’s looking for greater success, deeper experiences of spirituality, and, in some cases, release from the sufferings of contemporary American life. This story is about how we make sense of our lives by the “real” established by science and how very much belief in something, whether formula or faith, helps us make sense of the reality of the “real” and thereby create the communities in which we live and strive.
Leading with love : conducting value-driven collaborative processes
(2023-04-20) Osborn, Kristen; Sanchez, K. J.; Bassiakou Shaw, Alexandra; Cox, Leah; Buchanan, Jason
This thesis will explore the ways in which a value-driven model of leadership can contribute to successful collaborations in the production of live theatrical events as measured by both high artistic merit as well as the establishment and maintenance of a positive collaborative environment, sense of community, and foundation of trust among a creative team. I will conduct an examination of the works I have directed and produced while pursuing my Master of Fine Arts in the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of Texas at Austin and engage in dialogue with collaborators from these projects. I will also analyze moments of success and failure in my development and application of a model of value-driven leadership. In addition, this thesis will invite the reader to actively engage in step-by-step exercises to build their own value-driven leadership model.
The LIBERATOR Archive, March 2016
(University of Texas at Austin, 2016-03) University of Texas at Austin
The LIBERATOR Blog, April 2014
(University of Texas at Austin, 2014-04) University of Texas at Austin
The Lil' Bastard's guide to love : how to rub one out in your crush's bathroom and destroy the evidence
(2010-05) Shasteen, Stephanie Elaine; English; Kroll, Judith, 1943-; Young, Dean
The Lil’ Bastard’s Guide to Love is a compilation of poems I have written during two years of study in the creative writing program at the University of Texas. These poems mostly concern themselves with love. They also deal with the inadequacies of naming and language, and coming to terms with the fact that sometimes the best thing you can do is to not ruin everything with words. Words will disappoint you sometimes, but they are necessary, so at least try to be square with people if you absolutely must say something. As George Carlin put it, “You can't be afraid of words that speak the truth. I don't like words that hide the truth. I don't like words that conceal reality. I don't like euphemisms or euphemistic language. And American English is loaded with euphemisms.”
Love Across Three Religions
(2023) Milisci, Mary
The purpose of this thesis is to examine the commonalities of love across three different religions. This thesis will examine Christianity and Hinduism in depth, with references to Judaism. It will mainly focus on agape love in Christianity and bhakti in Hinduism, with an abbreviated focus on chesed in Judaism. Along with exploring the transcendent love in these religious traditions, it will also explore the religious rituals, beliefs, and texts used to express and enact this type of love. The exploration of love in these religions is meant to bridge together the similarities across different religions. In addition to the scholarly examinations and conclusions, I will include a creative component in the form of letters to God, in Christianity and Hinduism. This is meant to give a personal perspective of how these types of loves may be felt and experienced throughout life, with the help of religion.
Love and its refusal : love, historical memory, and the meaning of perversion in the Fromm-Marcuse feud
(2013-12) Duncan, Christopher Brian; Matysik, Tracie
This essay offers an intellectual history of the feud between the Frankfurt School philosophers Erich Fromm and Herbert Marcuse. In the competitive space of their debate, both thinkers attempted to redefine the spiritual experience and practice of love in a modern society. While a criterion for both Fromm and Marcuse was that love must be politically and historically radical, their different visions of that historical radicalism - exemplified in their 1955 debate in Dissent, and the two texts published immediately after their debate, Marcuse’s Eros and Civilization (1955) and Fromm’s The Art of Loving - parted ways at the idea of perversion. Perversion became a central procedure in Marcuse’s praxis of a real “outlawed” love that could negate modernity’s excessive sociability of guilt. For Fromm, perversion remained a “spiritual” form of regression away from love and maturity that he likened to violence. In both instances, the memory of German fascism was key to the (un)productive mistranslation of their ideas on love and perversion.
Love, guidance, and parental relationships : protective factors and barriers identified by youth living the school-to-prison pipeline
(2019-05) Hermosura, Lorna Mae N.; Valenzuela, Angela; Somers, Patricia (Patricia A.); Green, Terrance L.; Crosnoe, Robert; Davis, King E.
Studies on risk and protective factors for juvenile incarceration rarely include the perspectives of youth who are directly effected. This research is an analysis of 325 essays written by youth who are living the school-to-prison pipeline. Of the participants (ages 13 to 17), nearly half (46%) were incarcerated, 11% were "inside the pipeline," as they were truant or known by the police, and the remaining 43% were identified as "at-risk" due to their location in a high crime neighborhood or their voluntarily attendance at an alternative high school. The youth essays were in response to the prompt known as the IF Question: If there was something that someone could have said or done to help you, what would it be? Data were collected during structured workshops facilitated by trained workshop facilitators from The IF Project, who were also formerly incarcerated. The essays yielded 614 coded excerpts revealing risk and protective factors identified by youth living the school-to-prison pipeline while highlighting their high level of self-awareness. Despite some variance between the three groups, the overall findings reveal that youth most frequently identified love followed by guidance as protective factors. Youth also identified difficult life circumstances as barriers to their progress with parental relationships being the most frequent barrier cited across all three groups of youth within the sample. Implications and recommendations for those working to intervene or prevent juvenile incarceration include: ensuring intentionality regarding the quality of interaction between staff and participants; increasing opportunities for youth to build internal resources such as self-esteem and coping skills; preparing youth for independence and self-sufficiency given their difficult life circumstances; ensuring those who are truant and otherwise inside the pipeline have access to academic supports; and providing bias training to decision-makers that provide a historical context for the persistent state of disproportionate social outcomes among people of color and those from impoverished backgrounds.
Love, the Reason We Live: Romantic Love on the Human Body and Mind
(2020-05-08) Bansigan, Katrina Iris Osorio; Di Fiore, Anthony
Romantic love is an idea both ubiquitous and timeless. Stories and songs of love span across ancient civilizations, biblical tales, mythologies, and are indisputably apparent in life today. Romantic love is present in most cultures. As such, love is thought to have a function in human biology. Feelings of love allow us to create bonds and relationships that facilitate courtship, mating, and ultimately the continuance of the human species. Romantic love is also evidently rooted in human physiology. This article is a review of studies of romantic love, as reasoned in evolutionary psychology, anthropology, and human physiology. This review explores the biological purpose and effects of love and concludes that love is more than a feeling. Love is a human drive. I discuss love in relation to the five senses and to neurophysiology to demonstrate that love physically affects our bodies and minds and to show how it does so. I then discuss lost love, or "heartbreak", and the bases for commonly held methods to move past or heal from it. Given the biological function of love, I propose that as surely as one can fall in love, one can fall out of it. This article shows the multifaceted nature of love and how it intricately takes form within us.
Lucretius, Pietas, and the Foedera Naturae
(2013-05) Takakjy, Laura Chason; Dean-Jones, Lesley
The presentation of pietas in Lucretius has often been overlooked since he dismisses all religious practice, but when we consider the poem’s overall theme of growth and decay, a definition for pietas emerges. For humans, pietas is the commitment to maintaining the foedera naturae, “nature’s treaties.” Humans display pietas by procreating and thereby promoting their own atomic movements into the future. In the “Hymn to Venus,” Lucretius uses animals as role models for this aspect of human behavior because they automatically reproduce come spring. In the “Attack on Love,” Lucretius criticizes romantic love because it fails to promote the foedera naturae of the family. Lucretius departs from Epicurus by expressing a concern for the family’s endurance into the future, or for however long natura will allow. It becomes clear that Lucretius sees humans as bound to their communities since they must live together to perpetuate the foedera naturae of the family.
Making sense of money in marriage
(2011-05) Pope, Mark Todd; Huston, Ted L.; Loving, Timothy J.; Kitt, Karrol A.; Neff, Lisa A.; Vangelisti, Anita L.
This 14-year longitudinal study extends previous research on money in marriage by using multiple measures of money to predict seven dimensions of marital quality. Data collection began when the couples were newlyweds and extended through the first decade and a half of marriage, thus making it possible to examine the effects of money on marital quality across time. Overall, the findings indicate that money affects marital quality. Specifically, low income was associated behavioral negativity over the entire course of the fourteen year study. Low-income couples who were content with their financial situations were more satisfied than low-income couples that were unhappy about their financial situation. The effects of money on marriage increased over time such that by the time couples were nearly a decade a half into marriage couple’s income was associated with both positive marital behaviors and marital satisfaction. Similarly, the link between financial satisfaction and marital satisfaction emerged over time. The implications of these findings as well as directions for future research are discussed.
Poster Presentation: Abraham Maslow and the Origins of The Hierarchy of Needs in German Brain Science
(2016-05) Coonan, Daniel J
Robes for the heart : exploring love and devotion through sartorial symbolism in Urdu literature
(2017-06-22) Parvaiz, Saleha; Hyder, Syed Akbar; Shirazi, Faegheh
This paper explores the aesthetics of love and devotion in Urdu literature vis-à-vis sartorial symbolism. I analyze the ways in which love and devotion are constructed, imagined, and experienced through clothing by surveying selected examples from different genres such as the ghazal (lyric), qawwali (devotional songs), hamd (praise of God), na’at (praise of Prophet Muhammad), and nasr (prose). I map the thematic development of sartorial references and elucidate their aesthetic and discursive functions within and beyond written and oral texts. I question to what extent the different roles and meanings of clothing are reused, expanded, or problematized across genres. In doing so, I illustrate how discourses of love and devotion for one’s self, beloved, family, community, nation, and religion are formed and performed through clothing.
The temporal course of love : the developmental trajectories of passionate and companionate love and their connections to relationship dissolution
(2013-12) Schoenfeld, Elizabeth Austin; Loving, Timothy J.; Huston, Ted L.
It has long been believed that passionate love wanes over time, whereas companionate love grows stronger with time. Using a sample of individuals in dating relationships who reported on their feelings of love for their partners up to 20 times over the course of several months, I tested whether passionate love and companionate love develop across the early months of romantic involvement in a manner consistent with theory. Additionally, I investigated whether certain developmental trajectories of both varieties of love are more predictive of relationship dissolution than others. To do this, I first examined the average trajectories of passionate and companionate love for those who stayed together with their partners and those who experienced a breakup, paying special attention to extraneous factors that were expected to influence the manner in which both varieties of love changed over time. The amount of time individuals knew their partners prior to becoming romantically involved, their feelings of the opposing variety of love, the extent to which individuals wanted to break up with their partners, their perceptions of their partners’ desire to break up, and gender all informed the ways in which love changed over time. Because it was expected that passionate love and companionate love would show substantial heterogeneity in their temporal trajectories, I then identified the prototypical patterns of development for passionate and companionate love. The results for passionate love revealed eight distinct linear trajectories, and six unique linear trajectories were identified for companionate love. For passionate love, individuals who experienced stable or declining levels of love were more likely to experience a breakup, but the connection between companionate love and relationship dissolution was less straightforward. Perhaps most importantly, passionate and companionate love interacted to predict the likelihood of dissolution, such that, to the extent that individuals who reported higher levels of passionate love also reported stronger feelings of companionate love, the lower their odds of dissolution. The current findings both complement and extend prior theoretical and empirical work on the developmental trajectories of passionate and companionate love and their connections to relationship dissolution.