Compersion is a term used by practitioners of polyamory or swingers to describe the experience of taking pleasure when one's partner is with another person. It was originally coined by the Kerista Commune in San Francisco[1] (or possibly by the ZEGG community in Germany)[2] which practiced polyfidelity, and has since been adopted throughout the culture of polyamory. The term is often expressed as "the opposite of jealousy",[2] since that term is used to describe one's pain at a lover's experiences with others.
Formal definitions
- PolyOz define compersion as "the positive feelings one gets when a lover is enjoying another relationship. Sometimes called the opposite or flip side of jealousy." They comment that compersion can coexist with jealous feelings.[2]
- The Polyamory society defines compersion to be "the feeling of taking joy in the joy that others you love share among themselves, especially taking joy in the knowledge that your beloveds are expressing their love for one another."[1]
Related terms
The adjective frubbly and the noun frubbles are sometimes used, in the poly community in the United Kingdom and the United States, to describe the feeling of compersion.[3] These terms are more suited to cheerful, light-hearted conversation, and they are more grammatically versatile, for example: "I'm feeling all frubbly" and "Their relationship fills me with frubbles".
References
See also
External links
|
