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Document Details :

Title: Emozione e virtù nel legame coniugale
Author(s): CRUCIANI, Maria
Journal: Marriage, Families & Spirituality
Volume: 21    Issue: 1   Date: 2015   
Pages: 78-85
DOI: 10.2143/INT.21.1.3087669

Abstract :
Postmodern culture attaches much importance to the affective dimension of the marriage bond: if the emotional intensity diminishes over time, people are inclined to consider their relationship as inauthentic. This cultural atmosphere challenges ethics, inviting us to reflect on affection in a moral context and to promote a new awareness of marital fidelity. Neurosciences have highlighted that the structural role of affectivity in a moral prospective point out the responsibility of the subject for his/her own identity, even in the affective dimension. The aspiration of one partner to realize a full existence in the marital bond meets the same aspiration of the other spouse. This striving for fullness is the origin of something that is going to grow and will generate hope; this will change the awareness of the couple making the marital consciousness possible. The development of the couple is possible thanks to the affective motion. Features as tenderness, kindness and lenience, are typical of the couple relationship and can be considered as emotional tones. A spiral dynamism treads these emotional tones pushing them towards a progressive intensification. A responsible awareness of such natural dynamism leads to a conscious structuring of the respective virtues. Tenderness, compassion and lenience become stable behaviors in persons that wish to continue to feel attracted to their partner and want to draw themselves towards them. By orientating affective currents towards the partner, through courage and temperance, they promote a polite naturalness of their feelings, leading the progressive and incessant rekindling and refinement of the desire which was at the origin of the couple relationship.

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