ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a reflection on the very complex web that love as a second-order form creates and on which it builds. The rituals of disclosure have some similarity to rituals of gift exchange, as the unveiling of secrets, taking off the mask and showing something of the 'real self' is a mutual task, demanding a high form of reciprocity. Once love kicks in and creates intimacy, those rituals gain their meaning through love and from the lovers. It is more common that the lovers change register from rituals of disclosure to rituals of disguise. Rituals of enchantment are yet a further step in many love relationships and in the myths of love couples develop. The chapter suggests that Taylor misses the importance of the intimate dimension that allows late modern society to be held together, and thus overlooks that society is not held together by an ethics of authenticity but, rather, by a morality of love.
