The Washington times., 1933-09-11
Secrets OF
Health
By LOUIS E. BIsCH. MD. Ph.D.

Can ANY woman heally Love
More Than Once?
My answer to the question
whether a woman can really
love more than once is a cate
gorical and emphatic NO!
And the reason I hasten to
make this statement is because
I feel duty-bound, as a pSychol.
ogist and writer, to do what I
can to simplify the multitude
nous love entanglements that so
many women experience, and
that so often yield them untold
misery.
Were woman to become con-
vinced that she can have only
ONE true and deep-or shall
say deepest-love affairs, I feel
reasonably certain that that
conviction alone would stop her
from deliberately trying to love
somebody-anybody. Further
more, she would be more willing
to be patient and wait until the
proverbial "one and only" came
along to sweep her off her feet.
Alternatives
AS it is, the average young
girl is forever wondering
whether she is going to be mar.
ried or not. All too soon, also,
does this doubt become con-
Viction of defeat. Consequently
scores prepare themselves for
Self-supporting careers, which
they never follow, incidentally
wasting a lot of time and money
in so doing, and simply because
they want to feel sure of a ref.
uge if spinsterhood is to be their
lot.
Altogether too many young
women are continually trying
themselves out, as it we're
projecting their insistent love
urges, psychology would say. AS
consequence, not only do they
burn their fingers" frequently.
but in addition they soon de-
velop an attitude of disappoint-
ment, sophistication and cynI.
c1sm that makes it impossible
for them to realize it when at
last they actually do meet the
man who fulfills their purest
and most idealiStic longings.
Putting it another way, and in
summary fashion, the woman
who believes she can and
should fall in love many times
is careless about her love life.
She pursues a sort of hit-and-
miss method. Such a course is
bound to fail, and to lead to dis
gust, because the love life of q
woman is too delicate and pre-
clouS a thing to be so lightly
trifled with.
1nfatuatiOn
What every girl must be made
to appreciate is that a marked
distinction exists between being
in LOVE and merely being IN
FATUATED.
Infatuation a woman may
traction that borders on the
hypnotic. 1t may be engendered
by many factors: money, social
prestige, sex, chivalry, even by
a handsome face, strong ply
sique or the color of the eyes.
But it is as superficial as it is
transient.
1nfatuation a woman may
experience many times. Love
that singularly moving emotion
which can affect us so deeply
that it hurts-is felt only ONCE.
What is love, anyway?
The nearest psychology comes
to it is the explanation that we
fall in love when, in the case of
a woman, a reduplication of the
father concept is found; in the
case of a man, when it is the
reduplication of the mother con.
cept.
In other words, every girl in
her childhood looks upon her
father as a god. From this hero
worship, this really over,ideal-
lied conception, she is never
able wholly to free herself.
When I speak of a reduplica-
tion of the father concept 1 do
not mean that a woman will
fall in love only with somebody
who LOOKS like her father.
Father Concept
No. The father concept is a
composite of the influence that
emanated from the fathers per-
Sonality, which the girl adored
as a child. This concept may
actually be quite different from
the way the father appears to
her after she is grown.
This first concept sticks, how
ever. 1t is firmly rooted in a
girls unconscious mind. 1t ex-
erciseS dominant influence in
her choice of a lover.
No woman is likely to fall
deeply in love with man who
does not in some way resemble
her unconscious fathers con-
cept. If she yields to such a
man, marries and has children
by him, her love toward him is
then firmly cemented.
An identical mechanism MAJ
occur in cases where no mar
riage or intimacy exists. That
is why there are women who
have experienced their greatest
love toward a man they never
knew we'll. Again it is the
father concept element that
plays the decisive role.