Falling in love is the first stage of the development of a love relation. In the psychoanalytic literature as well as in general psychological literature and in poetry and the arts, it is typically represented by the love relations of adolescents. Men falling in love and establishing a passionate love relationship at late stages of their lives frequently have the exhilarating experience that their intense love for a woman transcends in new ways their erotic desire, so that love becomes the bridge to sexual intimacy. Love relations in later stages of the life span also test the extent to which pre-oedipal issues, conflicts around dependency on a maternal object, and the identification with a giving mother have been satisfactorily resolved. The capacity to depend on the loved other and to let oneself be taken care of may be severely hampered by unresolved early oral frustrations and aggression and the resulting defences against dependent longings and relationships.