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The new theory which the author puts before us in this paper is called by him the theory of the opposite wish. According to this theory every wish in the human being arises in twofold form, the one member of the pair being the exact opposite of the other member. The one wish is conscious, its opposite number is unconscious. Normally the conscious side is satisfied by appropriate action and the unconscious by identification. When one member of an opposite pair of wishes is satisfied, a tension is produced until the opposite wish is also satisfied. For example, if A strikes B, B's wish to be struck is satisfied and the active wish to strike becomes conscious and B now wishes to strike A. Before A struck B the two opposite wishes in B were latent and each was inhibited by the other. This is the basis of retaliation and punishment, both in the individual and in society. It is one of the mechanisms viâ which the super-ego is formed.
The child is at first entirely passive, gradually the satisfaction of the passive wishes awakens the active side of the (opposite) pair to life. By identification with the mother, the child passes on to satisfaction of conscious active wishes, each of which has its passive unconscious counterpart. Should the active wish be too often hindered in discharge, it leads to its repression by the (passive) opposite wish. Repression may also come about when both sides of the wish pair are equally strong, so that each inhibits the other. At first the polarity of the wish pair is passive-active, later it becomes object-subject. Besides the mechanism mentioned above, the super-ego comes into being, through the adjustment of 'oedipal love … by the realization of the opposite types of wishes in the child-parent situation' (p. 112).
As repression can only be brought about by the action of one of the wish pair on the other, it is necessary for the analyst to understand the theory of the opposite wish. The therapeutic importance of the transferenc