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The Six Capacities for Love: The Inner Map

July 11th, 2006 | 4 min read

By Keith E. Buhler

Have you ever noticed how much Memory has in common with Prophecy? Both are imaginative abilities to see what is not present as present. Memory sees the past as present, prophecy sees the future. The common ground seems to be the use of the imagination. I mean "imagination" not in the loose sense of "making things up," for neither true memories nor true prophecies are "made up," but rather in a more strict and literal sense of the term, that is, the ability to create or recall or represent images... to coin a silly neologism, imagination is our ability to imaginate.

 Goldbart and Wallin's work on love and relationships depends on an understanding of this mysterious human ability. The introduction of Mapping the Terrain of the Heart introduces us to their central concep of an "inner map." The inner map is the sum or collection of experiences as they are represented in our psyche, and has inordinate influence over selves individually and in relationship.

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