The Fate of Love in Some Couple Relationships

Presented by Mary Morgan

2 CEUs
Dates: February 13 2026
Time: 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM EST
Fee: $160

Abstract

Starting from the position that love is a basic human drive, and is usually key in a couple’s initial bond,  Mary Morgan asks what has happened to love in some couple relationships? Drawing on her clinical experience and Bion’s notation of L, H & K she is curious about why a couple may turn away from love. What follows is an exploration of problematic paths that love may have followed affected by factors such as developmental impairments, societal and cultural influences and the ordinary psychological challenges of loving another person. She explores the disillusionment of the ‘in love’ state, the complex relationship between love and hate, fear of loving and being loved, love as a merger, internalised prohibitions on love and a question about depressive position or mature love sometimes becoming a form of retreat. She wonders about the fate of love, not only as understood in the couples relating over time, but in the here and now of the couple analytic session, where she argues it might be given more attention. 

Course Objectives

1) Describe what Bion meant by -L

2) Describe three of the reasons a couple may turn away from love

3) Describe a reason why a couple might resist the disillusionment of the in love state