Editing Love triangle (section)

==History and definition==
The term "love triangle" generally connotes an arrangement unsuitable to one or more of the people involved.  One person typically ends up feeling betrayed at some point (e.g., "Person A is [[Jealousy|jealous]] of Person C who is having a relationship with Person B who, in Person A's eyes, is "their person.").<ref>David Cooper, ''The Death of the Family'' (Penguin 1974) p. 49</ref> A similar arrangement that is agreed upon by all parties is sometimes called a [[triad (relationship)|triad]], which is a type of ''[[polyamory]]'' even though polyamory usually implies sexual relations. Within the context of [[monogamy]], love triangles are inherently unstable, with [[unrequited love]] and jealousy as common themes. In most cases, the jealous or rejected first party ends a friendship – and sometimes even starts a fight with – the second party over the third-party love interest. Though rare, love triangles have been known to lead to [[murder]] or [[suicide]] committed by the actual or perceived rejected lover.

[[Psychoanalysis]] has explored "the theme of erotic love triangles and their roots in the [[Oedipus complex|Oedipal]] triangle".<ref name="auto">Johnson, p. 6</ref> Experience suggests that "a repeated pattern of forming or being caught in love triangle can be much dissolved by beginning to analyse the patterns of the childhood relationship to each parent in turn and to both parents as a couple".<ref name="auto" /> In such instances, "you find men who are attracted only by a married woman but who can't sustain the relationship if it threatens to become more than an affair. They ''need'' the husband to protect them from a ''full'' relationship...as women who repeatedly get involved with married men need the wives".<ref>Robin Skynner/John Cleese, ''Families and How to Survive Them'' (1994) pp. 268–269</ref>