| This is an interdisciplinary study of the origins of love. Love is traced in psychodynamic developmental theories so that the internalized needs of adults in intersexual love relationships can be understood. Then, through content analysis of the major media, the cultural portrayal of love is described. Both psychodynamic theory and cultural myth are then compared through the major components of each.; The first chapter begins with the theories of Sigmund Freud who describes love as growing from the discharge and/or sublimation of libido, from the repression of Oedipal feelings, and from finding someone else who represents one's own anaclictic or narcissistic needs. Then, the work proceeds to the concepts of Melanie Klein, to Object Relations theorists such as W. R. D. Fairbairn and Henry V. Dicks, to Otto Kernberg, Heinz Kohut, and Eric Fromm. In discussing Fromm, a bridge is attempted between psychoanalytic theory and social psychology. The dimensions of sex, aggression, orality, anality, conflict, narcissism, and alienation are concepts that are discussed as integral to the development of love in adulthood; psychodynamic theories are at one end of the arc and social theories at the other.; From an understanding of love psychodynamically derived, the cultural definition of love is studied through content analysis of representative media. The analysis undertaken considers the latent meaning as well as the manifest. The media is considered as a psychosocial force in modern day society since it also presents models for identification and internalization.; Then, areas of conflict and congruence between psychodynamic theory and cultural stereotypes are derived. The hypotheses discussed are: That media portrayals distort human relationships; that media characterizations are one dimensional and motivations simple while psychodynamically it is found that personality is complex and motivations multi-determined; that there is a conflict between the psychic push toward separation/individuation and the media fostered regressive pull toward symbiosis. The use of symbols in giving the externally portrayed its power to connect with the internally experienced is also outlined. |
