From: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog: And Other Stories from a Child Psychiatrist’s Notebook

For years mental health professionals taught people that they could be psychologically healthy without social support, that “unless you love yourself, no one else will love you”. Women were told that they didn’t need men, and vice versa. People without any relationships were believed to be as healthy as those who had many. These ideas contradict the fundamental biology of human species: we are social mammals and could never have survived without deeply interconnected and interdependent human contact. The truth is, you cannot love yourself unless you have been loved and are loved. The capacity to love cannot be built in isolation.