Characters on the Couch (Part 8)

Wednesday, August 30th, 2006
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The Lover Archetype

This Follows on from: Characters on the Couch (Part 7). The first part can be found at: Characters on the Couch (Part 1).

"I only have eyes for you."

Lovers are evangelical in their promotion and focus on relationships, sensuality and pleasure. They hold truthfulness and commitment dear. Harmonious relationships and emotional involvement are important to them. They seek intimacy, deep love and passion. Sensuous beauty appeals to their aesthetic side. Ultimately they want to find love and give love.

Their dark side is obsession, envy, jealousy and Puritanism. They are the preying mantises, the femme fatale preying on others.

Aphrodite (Greek Goddess) and Freya (Norse goddess) are both Lover archetypes. Delilah (Biblical temptress), the Sirens (Greek Legend) and Cleopatra (Egyptian Queen) are all shadow characters of the archetype. Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell both play lovers in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Not all Lovers are women – Michael Caine’s Alfie is a Lover. They often come in pairs like Romeo and Juliet. Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart’s characters in Casablanca cannot easily be separated in our consciousness no matter how tragic their parting. Some portrayals of Guinevere cast her as a Lover and soma as a Ruler.

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2 Responses to Characters on the Couch (Part 8)

Mark Thursday, August 31st, 2006

Quite wiffy with the scent of spam.

Didn't last long though.

darkdwarf Thursday, August 31st, 2006

Hmmm - that last post by maximus. I smell spam.

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