Love and the heritage of the past

In this paper, the author explores the difficulties in developing the capacity to fall and remain in love, as shown in a case study of a Holocaust survivor's daughter whose mother lived through the Holocaust as a child. These difficulties arose from the inability of the daughter to go through the mourning processes necessary for the separation from her bereaved mother, as well as from the daughter's fixation on the mother's interminable, unresolved mourning. The daughter exploited her relationships with the love objects in her life to play the role of the victim/persecutor. She thus enacted the drama of facing death and being rescued through flight or promiscuity, elements which were dominant in her fantasies relating to her mother's past. The working through of the transference relationship helped her become aware of the unconscious meaning embedded in her actions and eventually lessened her need to live her mother's past in her own life.