ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the role of love and hate in the consulting room, on the affects that feel are at the heart of the psychoanalysis that practise, affects that are of particular importance in the analysis of some patients. Although Sigmund Freud developed his ideas on the structure of the mind, he maintained his dual instinct theory. Thus, love and hate, he felt, are both involved at every stage of development and at every level of activity; both have to be available to be used. Freud warned that internal conflict weakens the ego, and that “Holding back aggressiveness is in general unhealthy and leads to illness”. With the integration of love and hate, the structure of the gate is in place, and there is a freer flowing both in and out of the mind, a greater capacity to experience life with its joys and disappointments, its pleasures and frustrations, and its relationships.
