[Love and partnership in adulthood: a continuation or correction of early childhood experiences? A review of theoretical concepts].
In this survey of literature on the subject, we discuss the question of whether or not and if so to what extent a mature, adult ability to love depends on relevant early experience, or whether it functions as a corrective to unfavorable emotional experience in early childhood. There is no compelling connection between certain disturbances of partner relations and concrete family circumstances in the first years of life. Such disturbances are regarded by traditional psychoanalysis as the result of an unresolved infantile conflict; however, since there is no psychoanalytical interaction theory for the description and explanation of interpersonal phenomena, recent discussions have drawn increasingly on a systematic approach. From a historical point of view, psychoanalytical discussions reflect essential changes in theories about the ability to love. More recent empirical studies point to a possible involvement of corrective and compensatory mechanisms for unfavorable early experiences of a medium degree of seriousness. Nevertheless, warm affection based on needs during the first years of life (at best from loving parents with a partner-oriented relationship) provides a basis for the adult's ability to love and form partnerships.
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D004328:Drive; D004532:Ego; D006801:Humans; D008149:Love; D008393:Marriage; D009769:Object Attachment; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010553:Personality Development; D011574:Psychoanalytic Theory
Liebe und Partnerschaft im Erwachsenenalter: Fortbestehen oder Korrektur frühkindlicher Erfahrungen?