Love

Why do people say that there is a thin line between love and hate?

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My guess, and only a guess: they say it because they are confused or unsure about "love." Many people (I include me) have had this experience: you are profoundly attracted to someone, but he or she is not as profoundly attracted to you, and maybe even doesn't like you very much. When he or she is nice to you, you feel love and desire for him or her; when he or she does something not nice, or does nothing at all for you, you feel hate and anger. You might go up and down and back and forth and be twisted all over the place from this. It is not pleasant. (It's not always your fault. Sometimes a person can meanly manipulate you, knowing how you feel.) But this is not a "thin line" between love and hate; it is the result of an ersatz or pseudo-love not yielding its desired fruits. Perhaps we could even say that a feeling toward another person that depended so exquisitely on reciprocity, such that it wavered to and from incessantly between "love" and hate, is not (conceptually) love to begin with. (But if it is not "love," then is the "hate" that goes along with it genuine or also ersatz?) However, it is, I think, true (see Sigmund Freud) that when we love someone we can also, and very often do, experience hate, anger, envy, jealousy, and other "negative" feelings or emotions toward or about him or her. This is a topic, I suppose, more for psychology than philosophy.

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