A Type of Woman with a Three-Fold Love Life1

Freud points out three different ways in which women can arrange their destiny: (1) Sex inhibition; (2) masculinization; (3) acceptance of the feminine rôle. The third is obviously the norm. Yielding to femininity is facilitated by the child to whom the woman gives birth. Moreover, sex denial and masculine attitude, which to a certain degree develop in all women, are led by way of maternity over to the third (the normal reaction) and absorbed therewith. On the other hand, in cases of sterility, constitutional or acquired, there occasionally appears a regression to the first two reactions which may be expressed by the formula: Since I cannot have any children, I don't want to be a woman.

Some women manifest all three reaction-formations, not at various intervals in their lives, but concurrently and permanently. Thus, a sex taboo exists against one man, though highly regarded, while another is accepted in the most feminine sense conceivable. There may also exist into the bargain, despite a faithful and even masochistic devotion to this truly beloved man, a Messalina-like promiscuity with a third category, a group of men who are frequently interchanged with one another. The personality of these men is a matter of indifference to the woman, being but an unimportant appendage to the penis. She uses these men as men use prostitutes or ephemeral concubines. Hence, for this reason and also because of the daring aggressiveness with which these interchangeable men are conquered, these complex women might be regarded as masculine, were it not that we see their utter devotion to the husband or the man who fills the rôle of a beloved husband, and are informed about the hysterical spells of anxiety which attack them whenever the unfortunate taboo-man makes sexual demands. However, so that the taboo-man will not accept his rôle with resignation, he is tantalized by these women in the desire to force him to continue wooing a woman who attracts and repels him at one and t