Journal title QUADERNI DI GESTALT
Author/s Matteo Limiti
Publishing Year 2026 Issue 2026/1
Language Italian Pages 18 P. 33-50 File size 0 KB
DOI 10.3280/qg2026-1oa19975
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After a brief diagnostic and terminological overview, the article focuses on exploring the construct of love addiction as a pathology of belonging, placing the concept within the broader socio-cultural framework of post-modernity or liquid modernity. The presence of a background marked by the precariousness of belonging experiences, further supported on a developmental level by a lack of primary attunement, promotes the development of a figure - love addiction - characterized by pathological forms of belonging. The article delves into the notions of tenuous belonging and toxic belonging as different types of dysfunctional belonging within love addiction. The former is typical of stagnant, monotonous relationships where a static dynamic prevails, yet is difficult to change. The latter involves the emotional highs and lows of intense and destructive relationships and may be associated with gender-based violence. The work then addresses therapeutic pathways, which must first and foremost be sought in the construction of a positive experience of self-belonging, which goes hand in hand with belonging to the therapeutic relationship. This is not an easy experience to achieve, precisely because of the love addicted’s difficulty in trusting and authentically engaging in intimacy with their therapist. The article then emphasizes the importance of enriching the patient’s background of belonging, in order to later focus on the figure - namely, the tenuous or toxic belonging - that may be desirable for the patient to dissolve. Finally, it concludes with a reflection on the return of the concept of “community,” understood as a natural and therapeutic experience of belonging, which must be founded not on fear and the identification of a common external enemy, but on solidarity and intimacy.
Keywords: love addiction;post-modernity;belonging;figure-ground organization;creative adjustment
Matteo Limiti, Dipendenza affettiva e post-modernità: la crisi dell'appartenenza in "QUADERNI DI GESTALT" 1/2026, pp 33-50, DOI: 10.3280/qg2026-1oa19975