Editing Infatuation (section)

==Youth==
"It is customary to view young people's dating relationships and first relationships as [[puppy love]] or infatuation";<ref>Vappu Tyyska, ''Long and Winding Road'' (2001) p.&nbsp;131.</ref> and if infatuation is both an early stage in a deepening sequence of [[love]]/[[Attachment theory|attachment]], ''and'' at the same time a potential stopping point, it is perhaps no surprise that it is a condition especially prevalent in the first, youthful explorations of the world of relationships. Thus "the first passionate adoration of a youth for a celebrated actress whom he regards as far above him, to whom he scarcely dares lift his bashful eyes"<ref>[[Sigmund Freud]], ''Case Histories II'' (PFL 9) p.&nbsp;387.</ref> may be seen as part of an "infatuation with celebrity especially perilous with the young".<ref>Timothy W. Quinnan, ''Generation Lost'' (2002) p.&nbsp;132.</ref>

[[Admiration]] plays a significant part in this, as "in the case of a schoolgirl crush on a boy or on a male teacher. The girl starts off admiring the teacher&nbsp;... [then] may get hung up on the teacher and follow him around".<ref>[[Eric Berne]], ''Sex in Human Loving'' (Penguin 1970) p.&nbsp;108.</ref> Then there may be [[shame]] at being confronted with the fact that "you've got what's called a crush on him&nbsp;... Think if someone was hanging around ''you'', pestering and sighing".<ref>[[Diana Wynne Jones]], ''[[Fire and Hemlock]]'' (London 2000) p.&nbsp;347–348.</ref> Of course, "sex may come into this&nbsp;... with an infatuated schoolgirl or schoolboy"<ref>Berne, p.&nbsp;108–110.</ref> as well, producing the "stricken gaze, a compulsive movement of the throat&nbsp;... an 'I'm lying down and I don't care if you walk on me, babe', expression"<ref>L. J. Smith, ''Night World Vol II'' (2009) p.&nbsp;51.</ref> of infatuation. Such a cocktail of emotions "may even falsify the 'erotic sense of reality': when a person in love estimates his partner's virtues he is usually not very realistic&nbsp;... [[Psychological projection|projection]] of all his ideals onto the partner's personality".<ref>[[Otto Fenichel]], ''The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis'' (London 1946) p.&nbsp;86.</ref>

It is this projection that differentiates infatuation from love, according to the spiritual teacher [[Meher Baba]]: "In infatuation, the person is a ''passive victim'' of the spell of conceived attraction for the object. In love there is an ''active appreciation'' of the intrinsic worth of the object of love."<ref>[[Meher Baba|Baba, Meher]] (1967). [http://www.discoursesbymeherbaba.org ''Discourses'']. Volume I. San Francisco: Sufism Reoriented. p.&nbsp;159. {{ISBN|978-1-880619-09-4}}.</ref>

Distance from the object of infatuation—as with [[celebrities]]—can help maintain the infatuated state. A time-honoured cure for the one who "has a ''tendre''&nbsp;... infatuated" is to have "thrown them continually together&nbsp;... by doing so you will cure&nbsp;... [or] you will know that it is not an infatuation".<ref>[[Georgette Heyer]], ''The Grand Sophy'' (London 1974) p.&nbsp;101.</ref>

The possible effects of infatuation and love relationships on the academic behaviour of adolescent students were examined in research. The outcome shows that most of the participants had distraction, stress, and poor academic performance as a result of love relationships and infatuation. Furthermore, the findings highlighted that this has a detrimental effect on learning behaviour among teenagers who are in romantic or infatuated relationships.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Gouda |first1=Gururaj Ganapati |last2=D’Mello |first2=Laveena |date=2021-02-22 |title=Infatuation, Romantic Relationship and Learning Behaviour among School Going Adolescents |journal=International Journal of Management, Technology, and Social Sciences |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=71–82 |doi=10.47992/ijmts.2581.6012.0130 |issn=2581-6012 |doi-access=free }}</ref>