It is in our first relationship with our mother that we experience the prototype of love and tenderness. Love is an offshoot of gratitude. The original gratitude the infant feels toward the gratifying mother and her gratifying breast is both sexual and emotional. A mother’s voluntary giving of love to her infant, who is too helpless to control whether she does so or not, is the first act of love. If the mother gives to the infant in this way, the infant will express gratitude and passion toward the mother, and the mother will experience a mutuality of tenderness and love, and a bond will be formed. Both will feel loved and appreciated, emotionally as well as physically. If a mother, due to her own emotional blocks, is unable to set this first example, the infant will develop blocks to intimacy.
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