Delhi University has introduced a new undergraduate elective titled “Negotiating Intimate Relationships” for the 2025–26 session. Aimed at addressing rising emotional distress and youth violence, the course explores love, intimacy, and toxicity in digital and real-life relationships.

Delhi University has introduced a first-of-its-kind undergraduate elective titled “Negotiating Intimate Relationships” for the 2025–26 academic session. The four-credit elective, offered by the Department of Psychology, is open to students across disciplines and colleges and is aimed at helping young adults understand and navigate the complex realities of romantic and platonic relationships in a digital age.

Amidst increasing overlaps between digital and physical spaces, the course seeks to equip students with the tools to understand, reflect on, and negotiate romantic and platonic relationships in the age of dating apps.

The course consists of three lectures and one tutorial each week and is structured into four major modules, including Theories of Love and Sexuality, The Psychology of Friendships and Intimacy, Recognising and Responding to Toxic Patterns and Building and Sustaining Healthy Long-term Relationships.

Designed as an interactive course, students will be asked to analyse their own social media networks, engage with everyday relational challenges, and analyse pop cultural depictions as well as real-life case studies. The course aims to use personal and digital experiences as key sites of exploration.

Pop culture will play a central role in these explorations, with films like Kabir Singh and Titanic used to critique how toxic behaviour is often romanticised in mainstream media. Students will also use Sternberg’s triangular love scale to assess one’s love towards a romantic partner.

“Films like Kabir Singh reflect how unhealthy behaviours are often glorified as passion, and we unconsciously absorb those ideas,” said Rishika Raj, a second-year student at Bharati College, DU.

The course has been introduced in the backdrop of a rising number of crimes among teenagers and young adults, many of which stem from unchecked emotional turmoil and toxic relationship dynamics. Between May and June alone, Delhi recorded at least three murders connected to possessiveness and emotional manipulation in young romantic relationships.

“I can say from personal experience that one faces a lot of hardships when it comes to navigating relationships at this age. We’ve never really been taught the do’s and don’ts of intimate relationships,” said Kumari Kajal, a first-year student at Hansraj College.

According to Naveen Kumar, a professor from DU’s Department of Psychology, young people today face unique relational challenges that earlier generations did not.

“With both parents working and ‘digital parenting’ on the rise, young people are granted a kind of freedom they aren’t always emotionally equipped to handle,” he told AajTak.

“People want freedom but don’t know where the boundaries lie. This lack of clarity leads to stress, mistrust, and often the breakdown of relationships.” He further added

Professor Kumar also pointed to the increasing transactional nature of modern relationships, which are often built more on intensity and immediate gratification than on emotional resilience. He warned that this shift can escalate to dangerous extremes, as evidenced by the recent spike in violent incidents among teenagers and young adults in Delhi.

According to reports, the university introduced this course in response to growing concerns about emotional distress and rising instances of violence rooted in toxic relationships among young people. Through structured academic engagement, the goal is to help students build emotional awareness and develop resilience.

Read Also: Exploring the state of teen love in an ever changing landscape

Image Credits: Hindu College

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