No - not a sign of love. Wanting to control someone is never motivated by love.

Having a man seek to control her can be interpreted as a good thing by a woman who is very damaged. Such a woman can think this indicates that a man highly values her. It can seem better to have a man wanting to respond to her every move, rather than to be ignored. If a person is starved for attention of a healthy kind, a person can come to welcome unhealthy forms of attention. It's long been recognized that children who don't get positive attention will often be inclined to behave in any way that gets them noticed. That's kind of different, but related. I don't think abused women try to get themselves abused. I do think that some abused women are extremely lonely and put up with bad treatment out of fear of being alone.

Loneliness is one of the most unendurable things for human beings. That's why prisons invented solitary confinement. It was found to be more effective than flogging, as a way of compelling compliance.

It's all well and good to tell an abused woman "You deserve better than him." But "better" isn't always readily available. If the choice is between tolerating mistreatment and being isolated and alone, human beings will often tolerate mistreatment. That is a fact of life.

The World of Suzy Wong was a 50's movie about an American man in Asia who becomes involved with a prostitute. She tries to impress her girlfriends by telling them, falsely, how much he beats her. They tell her that he must really think a lot of her to go to the trouble of roughing her up. This particular scene is presented in a comedic way that would be unacceptable today. The public's view of spousal abuse has evolved since the 50's. However, the scene resonated effectively with audiences who were able to believe that, for some women, having a man be posessive of them, even to the point of violence, seemed like a step up from their previous experience.