

348 BCE) touched on the idea in his famous dialogue, "Symposium," (although he never actually used the term itself). The term "platonic love" comes from ancient Greek philosophy.

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Platonic love is something we hear little about, but it plays an important role in our lives. Explore Platonic Relationships In Therapy Examples include Joey and Phoebe from the 1990s sitcom Friends, and Harry and Hermione from the young adult book and movie series, Harry Potter. Platonic friendships appear in popular culture, though fans like to point out sexual tensions or even ship them. But people misused and abused it, and the section was removed in 2018 along with all the other categories found in the personals section due to sex-trafficking concerns. In the 2000s, the term was used by the online classifieds website Craigslist in a section titled Strictly Platonic, meant for posts involving people seeking friendships. Many, however, like to argue that true platonic friendship can’t exist, as sexual attraction will always creep in between people. It originally referred to a relationship between a man and a woman, but has since expanded to include people of all genders. In its contemporary sense, platonic love involves a close friendship between two people where there doesn’t exist sexual desire. Over time, the idea of platonic love evolved into a friendship lacking a sexual component, especially due to social circumstances. Platonic love was viewed as a relationship devoid of sensual desires, instead grounded in the intellectual connection between two people. Platonic popped up again in the 1630s in England, where there was a renewed interest in Plato’s teachings. Ficinio’s platonic love was a Christian take on Plato’s ideas. It was based on ancient Greek philosophy of Plato, who saw the love of beauty itself as a higher, more ideal form of love than of the flesh. He spoke of amor platonicus (“platonic love”), a kind of divine, soul-connected love. The concept of platonic goes back to Florentine scholar Marsilio Ficino in the 15th century.
