abstract/love

This paper discusses the ego functioning and self psychological
aspects of falling in love and passionate love. These universal and
extraordinary phenomena are conceptualized as representing the
activity of the creative imagination in solving problems related to
coping with intense narcissistic and libidinal pressures. The work of
other authors is reviewed and recast into a metapsychological
framework involving ego and superego contributions to the experience,
and focused on self cohesion. An illustrative clinical psychotherapy
case is presented in an effort to understand what has traditionally
appeared to be a mysterious and disjunctive life experience, and to
explore the creative surge that can be generated by falling in love
both in and out of the transference. --Chessick, R.D. (1992). On
Falling in Love and Creativity. J. Amer. Acad. Psychoanal.,
20:347-373.