The late Latin word infatuatio came into Spanish as infatuation . This is what the act and consequence of becoming infatuated or infatuated is called.
The Royal Spanish Academy ( RAE ), in its dictionary, indicates that the verb infatuar refers to making someone become fatuous . The adjective fatuous , meanwhile, qualifies someone who lacks understanding or judgment or someone who boasts without justification .
Returning to the idea of infatuation, it is linked to the emotional state that is produced by great passion . Infatuation is due to intense love or excessive admiration.
When infatuation occurs, the individual feels an irrational attraction for the other . In the case of a romantic relationship, it is usually characterized by sexual desire and a feeling of need for the partner .
Generally, infatuation is due to a distorted or exaggerated image . It is important to keep in mind that, beyond the positive connotations of love and passion , infatuation is more associated with whim and childishness .
It can be said, in this framework, that infatuation is close to addiction and obsession . There is a certain superficiality or frivolity in the individual who experiences an emotion in this way.
According to psychologists, love evolves with the subject and mutates and adapts. Infatuation, on the other hand, is static, it does not help to improve or contribute to personal development.
Infatuation, therefore, differs from true love. It can even lead to the construction of a toxic and harmful bond .
At this point many questions arise regarding the origin of infatuation, its effects on both those who feel it and those who receive it, the reasons that lead the latter to endure it instead of leaving the relationship, etc. Precisely one of its most striking characteristics occurs when it remains part of a bond between two people for a long time, although from the outside it may seem unbearable.
As expressed above, infatuation is nothing more than a whim, an obsession, and it may have some attraction for whoever occupies the role of "receiver" or "object", but as soon as the clearly unhealthy features of this attraction emerge When they come into the light and become undeniable, it's hard to believe that the appeal doesn't fade and be replaced by a desire to jump off the burning building.
For those who experience it firsthand, we must point out that there are different degrees: the lightest is described as an infatuation with someone whom we cannot get out of our heads, about whom we cannot stop thinking as when a teenager falls in love for the first time. ; but the most extreme no longer causes sighs but can negatively affect sleep, eating and, consequently, the general state of health.
Why does love evolve and infatuation remain static? True love may seem irrational at first, but little by little it puts its feet on the ground and begins to build on increasingly solid ground, with an increasingly clear vision of the other person, with their flaws and their virtues . Infatuation, on the other hand, is not realistic, but is constructed arbitrarily and cannot tolerate the fact that the results are not what it expects, those it invented without any basis .
In a crude example, the reaction that a person in a state of infatuation could have if the other person told him that he did not love him would be to say "Yes, you love me." In its extremes, it can lead to manipulation, aggression and cruelty in order not to accept the breakup.