ABSTRACT
In Freud's early theory of instincts, love and hate were conceived of as nonidentical twins. Love aimed to acquire pleasure and pleasurable objects, and hate expelled the unpleasurable into the outside world. Psychoanalytic theory is not shy of references to destructive hate. In this chapter, the author examines certain nondestructive forms of hate. Such hate is fundamentally nondestructive in intent and, although it may have destructive consequences, its aim may be to act out an unconscious form of love. A person who hates with loving passion does not dread retaliation by the object; on the contrary, he welcomes it. The author illustrates how loving hate emerged as a major dynamic in the development of different persons, and he discusses what pathological purposes it served. He discusses the intent of that person who seeks to be an irritant to the analyst – to get under the analyst's skin – in order to compel the analyst to hate him.
