The Pygmalion Reaction

In a previous paper the writer (2) has stated the hypothesis that the basic psychological conflict in the human being is the need and desire for love, as opposed to the fear of giving or receiving love. Adaptation consists therefore in maneuvers which tend to mitigate the power of love, or to circumvent the fear, in order to establish a mature love relationship with another human being. Among these adaptations is the attempt to convert love into a less powerful emotion by giving it a rarefied and overesthetic quality. Though by no means universal, this is a fairly common reaction; it was observed at one time by the writer in three patients out of a clientele of about twenty. The reaction is a favorable one for the observation of psychodynamics.

This reaction may be termed the Pygmalion reaction after the well-known myth. The summary of Bullfinch (1) reveals with great clarity the psychological motives, as follows:

Pygmalion saw so much to blame in women that he came at last to abhor the sex, and resolved to live unmarried. He was a sculptor, and had made with wonderful skill a statue of ivory, so beautiful that no living woman came anywhere near it. It was indeed the perfect semblance of a maiden that seemed to be alive, and only prevented from moving by modesty. Pygmalion admired his own work and at last fell in love with the counterfeit creation.… He caressed it and gave it presents.… He laid her on a couch spread with cloths of Tyrian dye, and called her his wife.…

The festival of Venus was at hand [in which he prayed to Venus to give him for his wife] “one like my ivory virgin”. When he returned home he went to see his statue.… It was indeed alive.… Venus blessed the nuptials and from this union Paphos was born.…

Thus Pygmalion cannot tolerate women as they are and makes a statue so beautiful that no woman can compare with it. He falls in love with his own handiwork, and through the intervention of a goddess who brings it to life he is able to consummate the marriag