ABSTRACT
Love is a powerful, irrational, and all-consuming experience that can sometimes be short-lived or can develop into a more mature, lasting love. Sigmund Freud talks about being in love with oneself, a kind of narcissistic love that some people never get over. According to Otto Kernberg, narcissists cannot tolerate the kind of dependency needs an intimate relationship requires and unwittingly project this “imperfection” onto the other, typically a borderline partner, who is a perfect target for the narcissist’s negative projections. In a normal relationship, individuals are able to face reality. They do not live in denial and are not threatened by the other person’s emotions or truth. In pathological love, conflict overcomes the desire to love or to have an intimate relationship. Pathological relations encourage the tendency to repeat the trauma again and again. In perverse love, excitement becomes the replacement for love.
