Why is it possible...

Why/how is it possible to love and hate someone at the same time? In your opinion...

Its easy, they are both the same thing, "passion".You can feel passionate about both sides of a situation, so why not a person. Love and hate are not measuered on different scales, they are just two ends of a spectrum.

In college I had this girlfriend...
She had the worst "bitchy" attitude, which became downright obnoxious when alcohol was added (which she was inclined to do almost nightly). She hated all my friends, did not get along with her peers, was a pain in her parents ass...all adding up to a real nightmare to spend even a few hours with.
Yet, she was fun to hang out with (in many ways), and smart and sometimes funny (in a mean spirited way).
Strange, I still miss her...though I know that that would wear off after a few minutes around her again....

Because we really hate them... i mean love them... no... hate them... love... hate... love... arg

I can't speak for anybody else, but...

When I love somebody, I tend to have an idealized conception of them. I think they're smarter, nicer and better than they really are. When my loved one doesn't meet those standards, it affects me more than if some random stranger had done the same thing.

The trick, which I haven't mastered but am working on, is to accept your loved one as they really are, not as what you think they should be or could be. For most of us, that means we will sometimes be stupid, mean, rude, angry, hateful, stubborn, ugly, selfish, and all the other wonderful baggage that comes with being human. Communicating about the underlying issues that cause us to behave badly often causes that bad behavior to diminish.

Hate is just Fear with a stick.

I think real hatred depends for its strength on the strength of the love or relationship that came before. Love is the prior truth, hatred is the alteration and betrayal of it. Without the prior love, hatred would have nothing to hang itself on.

I can't think of any time where I hated someone without first having liked them. If I never liked them to begin with I don't feel much about them at all.

That is exactly how I feel about it.

What we lose, we become.
What we hide, we scorn and love.

Love the sinner. Hate their clothes.

Love & hate are two sides of the same coin, and how you integrate them depends on your personal definition of "love" and "hate." Does "hate" mean you're furious with the person because they did something that really ticked you off, or do you TRULY hate them (as in I-hate-you-so-much-I-really-would-kill-you-if-I-could)? By love, what kind of love? Between adults? Parents to children? Children to parents? Siblings?First-blush-romantic love? Infatuation? Love between friends? Or the kind of love which grows only after many years of knowing each other, when you accept each other unconditionally regardless of what happens?

For those who see issues in terms of absolutes, I imagine it would be easier to REALLY hate or REALLY love someone beyond all reason, so I guess the 2 could be mutually exclusive. But those who have the ability to see other sides of issues, or to "walk a mile in the other's shoes," depending on the strength, type and longevity of the relatinship, can probably find something to love even when they're angry, and something to hate even when they're loving.

In order to hate something, there must be an abscene of love for it. Neehai's right...If you love the sinner, you can't hate them...you have to hate their clothes.