The Origin of the Loving Self

Abstract

Postulating the clinical significance of accessing the loving self, this paper
argues that the ultimate source of the loving self lies in the mutual love of
the parents for one another. In four illustrative case reports, a similar clinical
event in the course of analytic psychotherapy led to the patients’ belated
discovery of their parents’ love for one another. Through this discovery an
important change occurred in each patient—fundamentally an enhancement
of the loving self. This material also raises questions about the alleged
dichotomy between “implicit relational knowing” and verbal symbolic interaction,
with particular emphasis on the role of the analyst’s interpretation.