ABSTRACT
In children who are developing well, healthy self-love goes hand in hand with love for others and a lively interest in the outside world. A narcissistic child takes his parents’ love as though it were his right and the natural consequence of his own qualities. A child who is himself capable of love, on the other hand, will feel loveable precisely because he can trust in their love for him, in spite of the normal conflicts of the Oedipal constellation. In such a benign cycle, the child’s sense of his own goodness reinforces his capacity for love and gratitude, and is reinforced by it.
