title: Reflections on Don Juan and on the utility of the unhappy love affair.
abstract: Based on an unusual clinical experience of a teenage boy in child psychotherapy, two conclusions are proposed: (1) that the extremely unhappy, early love affairs that occur in most men's lives serve a valuable function in helping them separate from their mothers sufficiently to be able to realistically relate to appropriate marriage partners, and (2) that some Don Juans start new relationships in order to break them off, rather than the reverse.
authors.affiliation: Harvard Medical School, USA.
authors.forename: Ernest
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bergel
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008149:Love; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009289:Narcissism; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D011574:Psychoanalytic Theory; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D012747:Sexual Partners / Q000523:psychology