Prologue
"SEXUAL DESIRE," WRITES ERICH FROMM IN THE ART OF Loving, "aims at fusion-and is by no means only a physical appetite, the relief of a painful tension. But sexual desire can be stimulated by the anxiety of loneliness, by the wish to conquer or be conquered, by vanity, by the wish to hurt and even to destroy, as much as it can be stimulated by love. It seems that sexual desire can easily blend with and be stimulated by any strong emotion, of which love is only one." At seventeen Robert was tall and good-looking, and had his choice of any of the girls in his senior class. But only one woman would satisfy him, and she, in turn, desired only Robert. Strange? Not at all. Except that the woman was Robert's mother.