I was struck by the timelessness of Heloise's philosophy concerning distinterested love. This concept of unconditional love is the cornerstone of modern relationship counseling. I believe that the healthiest and most rewarding relationships are those which espouse her belief that "a true lover supports the beloved in achieving his goals and realizing his moral potential."

Erich Fromm discusses unconditional and conditional love in his book entitled The Art of Loving--particularly in relationship to parental love. Plato distinguished agape (love of humanity) from philia (friendship), storge (family love) and eros (erotic love). These four types of love are discussed in Plato's Symposium and C.S. Lewis' The Four Loves. The purely sexual love that Moore and Bruder refer to in their discussion of Heloise is Plato's eros, and the distinterested or unconditional love is close to Plato's philia.