CAN WE DISTINGUISH NEED FROM DESIRE IN LOVE?
This is one of the central questions of philosophy, psychoanalysis, and the psychology of love. And perhaps that is precisely why Louise Glück 's verse is so powerful: All day I tried to distinguish need from desire. She does not say she tried to choose between need and desire. She says she tried to distinguish them. As if, in the experience of love, they were almost inseparable. The dialogue from Heartstopper Forever echoes this: Charlie: Do you need me? Nick: Yeah. So much. At first glance, it seems like a romantic answer. But it also raises a delicate question: is it healthy to need someone? Experts would answer in quite different ways. The Philosophical Tradition Plato: Desire is Born from Lack In the Symposium , love (eros) is born because we are incomplete. We desire that which we do not possess. In this sense, need and desire are relatives: both point to an absence. But Plato believes that desire can mature and cease to be merely a physical lack, becoming a search for the...