they say love is lust---is it true? (psychologist, humans, emotion)

[nickerman]

Sex is one strong drive in the animal species which includes us humans. I have seen loving relationships turn sour too many times to not believe that love is a constant changing emotion. But I have seen many loving relationships continue through time also. But the old saying used to be love is lust. Is that true mostly.

[augiedogie]

In the ancient Greek language, they have three words that converted to English, all get translated into love, yet the Greek words mean completely different things.

eros= lust of the flesh
fileo=friendship
agape=This is the selfsacrificing love one has for children and sometimes a spouse or gf/bf, when you give of yourself for the happiness and well being of the other person.

ITs too bad english didn't adopt similar language and usage, because lust is just that, but has no relationship to genuine love that makes a relationship work for years. Sadly, way too many people get married, just because they are in lust.

[Moson]

I wouldn't say 'love is lust', but it's fair to propose that a great many people get swept away by the rush of oxytocin and other hormones that flood the brain in the early stages of a relationship, then aren't able to adapt [or find they're incompatible], once that initial wave subsides. That wave isn't what many people would call real love, which is rooted in more stable emotional and cognitive ground and not as affected by surges of chemistry.

A friend of mine introduced me to the Four Greek Loves [what augiedogie missed was Storge, which he or she seems to have consolidated with Agape], and also an interesting taxonomy of love styles as devised by Psychologist John Alan Lee. Love takes many forms. It's part of what makes it so captivating to the imagination.