# What is the Opposite of Love?



## Chris Merola (Jul 11, 2014)

This is an ongoing debate I have had with an ISTJ friend. I believe that the opposite of love is apathy. It is harder to go from loving someone to feeling nothing for them. It is easier to go from love to hate. Love and hate are both strong emotions, they can both be obsessive, etc. 

My friend argues that apathy is the center of a spectrum between love and hate; it isn't the opposite of either.

I'm curious as to what everyone thinks. Is it apathy, hate, both, neither, depends? I'm curious to see if there is a divide between the types, or its more of a personal preference.


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## Fluctuate (Mar 24, 2015)

Chris Merola said:


> This is an ongoing debate I have had with an ISTJ friend. I believe that the opposite of love is apathy. It is harder to go from loving someone to feeling nothing for them. It is easier to go from love to hate. Love and hate are both strong emotions, they can both be obsessive, etc.
> 
> My friend argues that apathy is the center of a spectrum between love and hate; it isn't the opposite of either.
> 
> I'm curious as to what everyone thinks. Is it apathy, hate, both, neither, depends? *I'm curious to see if there is a divide between the types, or its more of a personal preference.*


Do you want us to comment with our types?


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## Chris Merola (Jul 11, 2014)

dogshavesillynames said:


> Do you want us to comment with our types?


sounds like a swell idea to me!


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## DeadlyRefridgerator (Jun 4, 2013)

I would tell you but I don't really care...


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## Noise (Sep 15, 2014)

I always considered apathy to be the opposite of love. While love and hate are both intense emotions, apathy is indifference. Apathy lacks that which love and hate share, so.


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## Pressed Flowers (Oct 8, 2014)

Hatred is the opposite of the pure concept of love.


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## TapudiPie (Feb 21, 2015)

I would say it depends
Speaking biologically wise, apathy might be the opposite of love as love and hate are both so intense they produce the same hormones while apathy lacks any "special" hormones being added
That making love and hate the same and apathy the exclusive

Philosophy wise I would put the 3 situations on a line
Love and hate being on the ends, apathy in the middle
Things don't just start by themselves, in order to obtain a certain situation you must start elsewhere

For example:
Apathy-> love-> apathy -> hate(?)

Same progress=different situation=same values=same thing?

So in short, that depends on your perspective
Same by progress or same by ingredients


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## Tridentus (Dec 14, 2009)

Apathy is the opposite of the concept of love.

Hatred only makes sense in the context of the way the word's use has changed to "really really liking" something.

The actual concept of love is based on closeness and attachment- you can love someone and hate them at the same time.. e.g. your parents, or maybe a spouse you've grown old and irritable with. That's why people know they've fallen out of love with someone when they feel apathy toward them, whereas people who love each other can easily fall out and hate each other.


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## UraniaIsis (Nov 26, 2014)

I "feel" the opposite of love, and hate, is apathy. Metaphorically I see love and hate as winds that lead to different shores. Those shores are predictable and "stable" under our feet, regardless of whether they are positive or negative in experience. Apathy is like being stuck out in the middle of the ocean with no wind in the sails and no oars on the boat to get you to any shore whatsoever.


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## WickerDeer (Aug 1, 2012)

I chose apathy because love and hate are both connected and can transform into each other, whereas apathy is the disconnection between one's awareness and one's feelings. 

Hate is an emotion, so it's manageable. It's like having a compass that points north. Apathy is like throwing your compass into the ocean.

But I do think that it's interesting to consider apathy as in between love and hate. I think that also might be true, somehow. Perhaps the lack of any positive feelings for someone can give birth to hate.

I do think that hate tends to subdue empathy, and that empathy might also be the opposite of hate...or greatly diminish it.

And that apathy subdues love, likewise. And love subdues apathy.


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## badwolf (Jun 17, 2012)

I like to think of it like a parabola where apathy is (0,0) and love is (2,4) and hate is (-2,4).


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## Fleetfoot (May 9, 2011)

Indifference, but that's basically apathy.


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## He's a Superhero! (May 1, 2013)

"The opposite of having positive feelings towards someone is having negative feelings towards someone." - my brother's words.

Apathy as more of a middle zone between the two in the way of progression from hate towards love or digression from love towards hate. An apathetic person when provoked to have feelings could go either way, either towards love or towards hate.


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## Turlowe (Aug 4, 2014)

INFP, I chose apathy


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## BenevolentBitterBleeding (Mar 16, 2015)

Not loving/not caring is the opposite of loving/caring, while hating shows that you still care enough to hate.

So if apathy = indifference, that _should_ be the opposite.


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## nichya (Jul 12, 2014)

apathy +1


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## Wheelie (Apr 2, 2010)

badwolf said:


> I like to think of it like a parabola where apathy is (0,0) and love is (2,4) and hate is (-2,4).


I agree, although a parabola may be more complex than necessary. 

Think of it on spectrum

if Love = 1

then Hate = -1

If apathy were to be zero, there would be no opposite to apathy because there's no opposite zero.

The closest thing that would come to an opposite would be "no spectrum"


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## He's a Superhero! (May 1, 2013)

Wheelie said:


> I agree, although a parabola may be more complex than necessary.
> 
> Think of it on spectrum
> 
> ...


If apathy had an opposite it would be emotion - so both hate and love are in the range of opposite apathy, but neither specifically.

Hate = -1
Love = +1
Apathy = 0
Emotion/feeling = *insert number*

The opposite of nothing is something. The opposite of no feeling is feeling, regardless of what the feeling is.


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## He's a Superhero! (May 1, 2013)

*Hate (-1), Apathy (0), Love (+1)*


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## Darkbloom (Aug 11, 2013)

Definitely apathy, love=caring, hate=caring, apathy=not caring


ENFJ


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## MuChApArAdOx (Jan 24, 2011)

I'm thinking the opposite of love is control. I can't even explain at this moment why I said this, however it popped in my mind as soon as I read the Intro. Control is a form of hate, because love is not controlling. There is such a fine line between love and hate, people can actually say they hate someone so much because they love them so much. Yet you won't hear people say they love someone so much because they hate them. Then again its late so what do I know, lol.


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## FearAndTrembling (Jun 5, 2013)

arkigos said:


> The answer is specifically 'hate'.
> 
> Those who say that hate is not the opposite of love because they both involve passion are saying that, say, blue is not the opposite of orange because they are both colors. Well! That is why we are comparing them as opposites.
> 
> ...


I am not sure love is a passion; I defined it as a responsibility. It can be both, among other things. Like a career or many other things. It is a passion and a responsibility. So is hate. But neither have to be. 

They both enslave you to other people. Make you depend on them for love or hate. 






*Müller*: What was that story you were going to tell me?
*Heydrich*: Story?
*Müller*: Kritzinger.
*Heydrich*: Oh yes, he told me a story about a man he had known all his life, a boyhood friend. This man hated his father. Loved his mother fiercely. His mother was devoted to him, but his father used to beat him, demeaned him, disinherited him. Anyway, this friend grew to manhood and was still in his thirties when the mother died. The mother, who had nurtured and protected him, died. The man stood at her grave as they lowered the coffin, and tried to cry, but no tears came. The man's father lived to a very extended old age, and withered away and died when the son was in his fifties. At the father's funeral, much to the son's surprise, he could not control his tears. Wailing, sobbing... he was apparently inconsolable. Lost. That was the story Kritzinger told me.
*Eichmann*: I don't think I understand.
*Heydrich*: No? The man had been driven his whole life by hatred of his father. When his mother died, that was a loss, but when his father died and hate had lost its object, the man's life was empty..over.
*Müller*: _[pause]_ Interesting.
*Heydrich*: That was Kritzinger's warning.
*Eichmann*: What, that we should not hate the Israelites?
*Heydrich*: No, but that it should not fill our lives so much that, when they are gone, we have nothing left to live for. So says the story. I will not miss them.


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## He's a Superhero! (May 1, 2013)

Peter said:


> I'm sorry. It's Deuteronomy 22:20


Ancient Israel had the death penalty for immorality, such as adultery. This punishment was equal for both men and women.


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## SmashingAllMyWindows (Jul 26, 2015)

I think it differs. I know, for example, that investing emotion in someone, even if it is hate, is indicative of some kind of emotional attachment. This is why most people will get more pissed off if you treat them as if they weren't there rather than actively disliking or even hating them, it shows that you have a complete lack of care and connection.


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## Peter (Feb 27, 2010)

He's a Superhero! said:


> Ancient Israel had the death penalty for immorality, such as adultery. This punishment was equal for both men and women.


Oh well, then I guess it's ok to stone women to death for having sex before marriage. As long as they also do this with men ofcourse. This ancient way of thinking still applies in todays modern societies too ofcourse.


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