ABSTRACT
Like all great dramatic works, the story of each individual human life can, in many instances, be whittled down to one fundamental leitmotif: the question of who loves us (and who does not) and when and where and how love occurs. As noted in Chapter 1, “First Relationships,” each of us owes the fact of our existence to the attraction (whether it be affectionate or lustful, long-standing or fleeting) that once existed between two individuals, and our extreme fragility during infancy—the evolutionary inheritance of our species—as well as the continued impact that others have upon both the quality and quantity of our lives ensures that most, if not all, of us will devote considerable effort to finding an answer to that very question.
