Love's Pivotal Relationships: The Chum, First Love, Outlaw and the Intimate Partner
Richard Alapack, Ph. D. is an Associate Professor Psychology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). Power fades; money vanishes; fame is fickle; ambition is foolish; only love endures. Most importantly, therefore, Richard is father to three splendid children, Nicole, Richard and Orion, and the grandfather of two bright and beautiful girls, Sophie and Olivia. His principle disciplinary areas love and death approached from existential, phenomenological, hermeneutic and psychoanalytic points of view. His original research includes such topics as first love, first kiss, the outlaw relationship, flirting on the Internet and the hickey, and tender-erotic touch. A stint as clinical-community director of the Seward Life Action Council in Seward, Alaska, expanded love-matters to included death-themes; and a concurrent visiting lectureship at the University of Pretoria-- when Apartheid ended in South Africa-- triggered ongoing teaching and research both on natural and manmade disasters and on global political themes. Currently, he also researching the phenomena that cluster around peace: humiliation, violence, revenge and their cures: forgiveness, compassion, mercy. Richard hails originally from Pennsylvania. During his career, he has held appointments at all the major human scientific and humanistic psychology departments in the USA: Duquesne University, the University of Dallas, Seattle University and the State University at West Georgia. For fourteen years, he held a joint post at the University of St. Jerome's College and the University of Waterloo. Since 1990, he has been a visiting professor at the University of Pretoria, South Africa, and continues to advise its doctoral students. He is also affiliated with the California State University at Northridge, CSUN in Los Angeles.