Between conventionality and aggression: the boundaries of passion.

This paper explores changes in the recent psychoanalytic theory regarding the preconditions and structural characteristics of sexual love. In briefly reviewing Freud's contributions and subsequent developments regarding infantile sexuality and the perversions, the oedipal constellation, superego development and mass psychology, a common frame is provided for the description of the love life of the sexual couple. In this context, this paper also explores how contemporary psychoanalytic formulations may help to clarify certain conflicts between conventional morality and the psychological reality of the couple in love.