The lived-experiences of love in a third world society: A phenomenological study

The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experience of love among Iranian college students. Love is one of the most important factors in human relationships. For this purpose, with a phenomenological approach, 14 college students (Isfahan University and the Isfahan University of Technology) who had experienced “love” were interviewed in-depth as participants. Interviews’ contents were analyzed with Colaizzi method. Besides the identification of different forms of love, there are common themes of love among different experiences that can be categorized into one central theme, “Emerging romantic empathy,” four themes and eleven sub-themes. The main themes include “convergence and mutual support,” “pure and transcendent intimacy,” “Initial unconscious relationship,” and “Foresight and pragmatic relationship.” The results show that “the Love” is involved with attachment feeling, intimacy, life cycle experiences, and common identity. The love found dynamic types according to the transformation in social contexts such as third world societies.