WORK AND LOVE - THEIR RELATIONSHIP IN ADULTHOOD

The ability to work and to love, according to Freud, is what defines a healthy adult. Work and love have been studied extensively, but usual ly separately, although recent attention has been given to how to bala nce the two. There has been little research, however, that focuses on the relationship of one domain to the other. The purpose of this study was to uncover the ways in which work and love relate in adult life. Qualitative data were collected from 405 adults who charted their asse ssment, by year, of their work and love-related life events. These dat a were augmented with data from 19 in-depth interviews. Three distinct relational patterns (parallel, steady/fluctuating, and divergent) of work and love were uncovered.