Sex with Love vs. Sex without Love

We often hear about this fundamental dilemma around sex and love. What are the advantages and disadvantages of a loving sexual relationship vs. a loveless sexual relationship?

Loving Sexual Relationship:

Advantages:

Emotional satisfaction, security, and expectation that the relationship will endure when sexual desire and passion diminish.

Disadvantages:

Some may find emotional involvement to be inhibiting to sexual expression. Confusing lust with love can generate an endless amount of resentment and bitterness.

Loveless Sexual Relationship:

Advantages:

Feeling freer to express oneself sexually and experiment in this arrangement, gaining greater sexual satisfaction.

Disadvantages:

Sex not founded on love tends to become stale, dull, and boring quickly.

Our attitudes, beliefs, and values towards sex and love vary by age, culture, and upbringing. Relationships are shaped by our experiences and our balance of need for security, stability, predictability, and permanence in relationships, and an equally intense yearning for novelty, excitement, and change.

*Notes taken from Albert Lyngzeidetson – Author of Psychology of Relationships