  infatuation is the state of being carried away by an unreasoned passion or love. hillman and phillips describe it as a desire to express the libidinal attraction of addictive love.david hillman and adam phillips, the book of interruptions (2007) p. 115 usually, one is inspired with an intense but short-lived passion or admiration for someone. ==characteristics== cox says that infatuation can be distinguished from romantic love only when looking back on a particular interest. infatuation may also develop into a mature love.frank d. cox, human intimacy (2008) p. 72 goldstein and brandon describe infatuation as the first stage of a relationship before developing into a mature intimacy.a. goldstein and m. brandon, reclaiming desire (2009) p. 232 phillips describes how the illusions of infatuations inevitably lead to disappointment when learning the truth about a lover. adam phillips, on flirtation (london 1994) p. 40 ==youth== 'it is customary to view young people's dating relationships and first relationships as puppy love or infatuation';vappu tyyska, long and winding road (2001) p. 131 and if infatuation is both an early stage in a deepening sequence of love/attachment, and at the same time a potential stopping point, it is perhaps no surprise that it is a condition especially prevalent in the first, youthful explorations of the world of relationships. thus 'the first passionate adoration of a youth for a celebrated actress whom he regards as far above him, to whom he scarcely dares lift his bashful eyes'sigmund freud, case histories ii (pfl 9) p. 387 may be seen as part of an 'infatuation with celebrity especially perilous with the young'.timothy w. quinnan, generation lost (2002) p. 132 admiration plays a significant part in this, as 'in the case of a schoolgirl crush on a boy or on a male teacher. the girl starts off admiring the teacher..[then] may get hung up on the teacher and follow him around'.eric berne, sex in human loving (penguin 1970) p. 108 then there may be shame at being confronted with the fact that 'you've got what's called a crush on him...think if someone was hanging around you, pestering and sighing'.diana wynne jones, fire and hemlock (london 2000) p. 347-8 of course 'sex may come into this...with an infatuated schoolgirl or schoolboy'berne, p. 108-10 as well, producing the 'stricken gaze, a compulsive movement of the throat...an "i'm lying down and i don't care if you walk on me, babe", expression'l j smith, night world vol ii (2009) p. 51 of infatuation. such a cocktail of emotions 'may even falsify the "erotic sense of reality": when a person in love estimates his partner's virtues he is usually not very realistic...projection of all his ideals onto the partner's personality'.otto fenichel, the psychoanalytic th
Emotions Interpersonal_relationships