I have never felt a sense of ownership about another person. I have felt attachment and commitment, and had an expectation that those sentiments be returned, but never ownership.

I guess my take on this thought experiment is can people share their love for others equally. I'm not implying mutual physical love necessarily. Rather learning to appreciate others for who they are. To learn to depend on them to support them as they do for you.

I wonder if there has ever been a human social structure similar to the sci-fi species from Star Trek named the Denobula. Here is a synopses of their family structure. In the series the ship's doctor was named Phlox.

Phlox had three wives, each with three husbands, including Phlox, resulting in a total of 720 relationships, 42 of which had romantic possibilities. There were 31 children in his extended family, and he had five children of his own: three sons and two daughters. His poor singing of Denobulan lullabies made them cry. All his children left years before his assignment to Enterprise. His daughters were a surgeon and a biochemist. His oldest son was an artist, specifically a potter, and lived in the same town as his mother. He hadn't spoken to his two younger sons (one of whom was named Mettus) in several years, as they never saw eye-to-eye with Phlox. Mettus held archaic, anti-Antaran beliefs even though Phlox tried to instill in him the ideal to embrace other cultures

Honestly I've found that having a single relationship can be challenging let alone 42!

Perhaps the challenge of human nature may be when jealousy creeps in. For example open relationships where three or more people are involved. I know in my past I had opportunities to be involved in open relationships. But honestly for me not knowing all those involved (including their other partners) made it seem too risky.

Especially having dealt with others who were jealous and or poor communicators.

Yes. Ownership and love are quite separable feelings. One need not possess to love.

There is some song lyric that is escaping me at the moment.

Edit: Ahh. Soundgarden of all sources... "don't you lock up something that you wanted to see fly".

I think it's difficult not to feel a certain amount of ownership, but my man slave will tell you he likes it.