The Loving Self: A Theoretical and Practical Concept

Abstract

The loving self arises early from parental love, but it becomes inhibited inthe course of childhood development. Analytic psychotherapy is a mutuallyloving process, through which the loving self achieves liberation. The lovingself is the ideal self state for our postmodern era. Progenitors of the conceptare cited and their contributions to psychoanalytic thought are explored.Clinical examples show the process of self-actualization.