with regard to psychoanalytic theory, the choosing of a mare of other subject of one’s affection who will supply them with the same kind of help, reassurance, and backing that the person was given by their mother and father during the period in their life from birth thru the formative childhood years. Females select males that share a likeness with their fathers and males select women who are like their mother. Freud compared this with narcissistic object choice, wherein mates are chosen that are alike to oneself. He postulated the idea that the aforementioned methods of mate selection are the only methods that exist. Commonly referred to as anaclitic love.
ANACLITIC OBJECT CHOICE: “It is said that anaclitic object choice has much to do with the person a child ends up sharing their life with as an adult- hence the common occurrence in which many men end up with women like their mother, or many woman end up with men like their fathers.”