the.com/engulfment
The fear that love means disappearing into someone else's life.
means To be swallowed up or completely overwhelmed by something, as if pulled under and consumed by it.
from Built from 'engulf' — the verb that fuses 'en-' (into) with 'gulf,' the word for a vast chasm or swallowing bay of sea. 'Gulf' itself traces back through French 'golfe' to Greek 'kolpos,' meaning a fold, bosom, or deep bay. So the word carries an ancient image: something opening wide — like the sea's own throat — and taking you whole.
- origin
- Common term in attachment and relationship psychology
- not shyness
- It is fear of closeness, not fear of people
- typical move
- Pulls away right when intimacy gets real
- paired with
- Often dances opposite abandonment fear in couples