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Wittels in this paper analyses the concepts of masculine and feminine. He shows that they are concerned with more than ideas of activity and passivity, more indeed than can be ascribed to intellectual perception, and that they are rather matters of intuition than of intellect. He seeks in fact to establish them as 'Erlebnisse'—that is, as something experienced. He shows how relative the concepts are both in the history of the individual and with different peoples and different epochs.
All psychic functions are charged with libido and cannot otherwise occur. The libido is desexualized, an indifferent psychic energy. But the Id, the matrix from which the Ego with its mode of thinking is derived, is bisexual. This is fully attested by analysis of adults and children, of dream symbolism and of primitive culture. The super-ego, however, demands that the individual be not only monosexual but that he be asexual too. This demand is never fully complied with, an example of this failure being the familiar polarity of thought. There is a genetic connection between the bisexuality of the Id and compulsive polarity of thinking. Masculine and feminine belong to this polarity of thought. In our cultural environment beauty and attractiveness are feminine while integrity, dependability and moral superiority are attributes of masculinity.
His definition of masculine and feminine at the level of the Ego is—that which is experienced in the form of thought-polarity as masculine and feminine.
To the much debated question as to whether masochism is feminine, he replies—one feels it as feminine.
The bisexual impulses of the Id are constantly seeking satisfaction from within or without, utilizing the mechanisms of projection and identification. The feminine impulses seek completion in internal or external masculinity and vice versa. His definition of masculine and feminine at the level of the Id is—that which strives for completion through feminine or masculine.