About the development of the capacity to give and receive love

In order to feel and give love, we have to have been given and felt love beforehand. This stems from childhood. As long as someone has truly loved us, we will develop that capacity within ourselves.

In those, very rare, cases where this has not happened, or, more commonly, where the loving is impaired and/or, as in most cases, imperfect, there will be an effect.

It could be coldness, an inability to connect or to relate to others. 

This is a very sad situation to have to deal with but, if we have been affected by this in our own personal relationships, it does help if we know and understand someone's background.