WILLIAM HAZLITT, OBSESSIVE LOVE, AND LIBER AMORIS. (July 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: TROSMAN, HARRY
• Is Part Of: Psychoanalytic quarterly. Volume 86:Number 3(2017:Jul.)
• Page Start: 645
• Page End: 663
• Publication Date: 2017-07
• Subjects: William Hazlitt -- loss and response -- creativity -- obsessive love -- literature -- Romantic movement -- imagination -- idealization; Psychoanalysis -- Periodicals; 616.8917
• DOI: 10.1002/psaq.12161
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0033-2828

Abstract

Abstract : William Hazlitt, a distinguished literary figure of the early nineteenth century and a forerunner of psychoanalytic insights, had a keen awareness of the impact of the imagination on assessing works of art. At forty‐two, he became hopelessly involved in an obsessive love affair with a nineteen‐year‐old woman and could not extricate himself from the relationship. The affair followed the death of his father, a powerful influence on his life. Factors in his obsessive love included finding an object of idealization subject to his imaginative creation and narcissistically reexperiencing himself about to begin a new life.