Polyamory: a SWOT analysis

Strengths: Variety in emotional and sexual life

Weaknesses: Resource costs

Opportunities: A chance to get to know yourself better; Less anxiety and fixation on a partner

Threats: Incomplete closeness and support; Jealousy

Variety in emotional and sexual life

Polyamory makes it possible to feel a new range of emotions and impressions.

A sense of freedom, the chance to experiment and to have a brighter, richer sex life without needing to hide or feel guilty.

All of this is inspiring and makes you want to dive into new experiences.

Resource costs

Any relationship requires a significant investment of resources (time, emotional, material). Finding time to meet, having the capacity to resolve conflicts and understand each other.

This can be hard even in a relationship with one person, let alone when there are several such people.

A chance to get to know yourself better

We learn a lot about ourselves through interacting with others. Being in relationships with several people at once lets you discover new sides of yourself and notice how varied, or on the contrary how similar, your reactions are to different people and situations.

Less anxiety and fixation on a partner

An imbalance in a monogamous relationship (one partner being less invested while the other is strongly dependent on and absorbed in the relationship) can cause fear of loss, anxiety and insecurity.

Polyamorous relationships soften this tension. Attention gets distributed, so to speak, and the importance of any one person is dialled down. This lets you relax and react more calmly to different situations.

Incomplete closeness and support

Building closeness is a process that takes time, close contact and being invested in each other.

When there are several partners, this is hard purely physically. The quality of contact, trust and mutual support may differ from that in monogamous relationships.

Jealousy

Despite all agreements, no one is immune to jealousy. It can arise no matter how mindful your relationship is.