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The vicissitudes of love are the subject of Otto F. Kernberg's ambitious new book, Love Relations-Normality and Pathology. Here Kernberg has elaborated a developmental line of love, outlining many possibilities in individuals and couples. Having resolved years ago (while writing about aggression and borderline personality organization) to elucidate the subject of love when he reached sufficient clarity, Kemberg now offers significant emendations to the theory of libido and its relation to aggression and many other important topics in psychoanalytic theory and practice.
In an attempt to integrate mind and body, Kernberg begins with a summary of the biology of love. Hypothesizing that biology is the “matrix within which psychological aspects may develop” (p. I), Kernberg discusses sex hormones and their relationship to other physical processes. In primates, unlike lower mammals, the influence of hormones is modified by psychosocial stimuli.
Biology and psychology contribute in varying ways to the development of core gender identity, gender role identity, dominant object choice and intensity of sexual desire, which are the initial explanatory categories that Kernberg uses. Gender role identity, which involves the sense of what behaviors are typical for females and males, is heavily influenced by psychosocial forces. Core