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November 14, 1950. FREUD'S CONCEPTION OF LOVE. Edward Hitschmann, M.D.
Dr. Hitschmann summarized Freud's views on the psychology of love in the development of the male. The feeding mother is the boy's first love. If the adult object choice is of the 'anaclitic type', the mother reappears (unconsciously) in the person of the beloved. In the 'narcissistic type' of object choice the love object is a substitute for the ego ideal. The passionate, monogamous character of love derives from the fact that its unconscious origin is the incestuous love for the mother. Biographical studies of Goethe, Samuel Johnson, Gottfried Keller, and Johannes Brahms show the effects of mother fixation on the adult's love life. Stendhal remembered his boyish incestuous wishes even in adult life.
Falling in love may be compared with the experience of revelation in religion. In both there are feelings of bliss and a feeling of being united with