The critique of Eros: Freud on narcissism and the prospects for romantic love

Abstract

This paper examines the prospects for real/actual love as viewed from a classical psychoanalytic framework. It is argued that Freud’s prescient and controversial 1914 work On Narcissism: An Introduction holds great importance for an understanding of his views on love, which in many ways were never explicitly defined. After the concepts of narcissism and love are considered, the aim, process, consequences and specific choices of object love are analysed. Perhaps not surprisingly, both narcissism and the residue of infantile love objects permeate and continually influence subsequent object love in a powerful manner. These perseverations of the infantile, along with impediments arising from the beloved, society and the self, create a number of difficulties for a would-be lover. Despite these hindrances from both within and without, real/actual love is certainly possible within Freud’s framework, but it is hard won and appears to require the dispelling of illusions, emancipation through recognition of one’s determinism, acceptance, introspection and continual character development.