In this paper we have attempted to relate two very complex subjects: love and creativity. Based on our analysis of the known facts of the life of Eugene O'Neill, and concentrating on three of his plays, we suggest that the forward thrust of his psychosexual development carried as far as the stage of falling in love, common to the late adolescent-early adult, but that persisting conflicts prevented him from forming a full adult object relationship. His artistic productivity was influenced in three ways:

1Desiring to love and be loved acted as a repeated urge that supplied an important component to his inner pressure for self-expression. It became a major motif in his plays.