The lovemap is a concept originated by sexologist John Money in his discussions of how people develop their sexual preferences.
Prior to that, Money discussed lovemaps in a precursory form with his students in lectures, employing the term as a replacement for the expression, "an idealized and highly idiosyncratic image.
"[2] In a 1997 article in the controversial and non-peer reviewed journal Medical Hypotheses, Money revisited the concept of 'love map' and expanded it to three categories, haptoerotic (cutaneous), morphoerotic (visual) and gnomoerotic (narrative).
[8] Psychologist Gregory Lehne states that lovemaps may be influenced by genetic or prenatal factors, but that their specific content must come from the senses.
[6] Money suggests that love is like an inkblot test, where pair-bonding occurs if projections (shaped by a person's lovemap) on the other are mutual, typically in a courtship phase of mating.