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The purpose of this paper is to study some developmental aspects of perception and object relation. The material used derives from the analysis of a patient with transvestite tendencies who showed various anomalies in his perceptual functioning, particularly in his experience of space and direction. The emphasis will be on that concept of personality which regards the ego functions of perception, the evaluation and manipulation of the total environment as of equal importance with the study of sexuality, anxiety, defence mechanisms, and the superego.2 In 1913 Freud stressed the importance of a similar approach in regard to the problem of neurotic predisposition. He wrote: '… a full understanding of any neurotic predisposition from the developmental point of view is never complete without taking into account not merely the stage of libido development at which fixations occur, but also the stage of ego development.'3
It is assumed that perception and performance tend to remain within the cultural form, and it is for this reason that an attempt is made to bring somewhat more data than is perhaps customary in a psycho-analytic case study on the cultural (more specifically, subcultural) background of the patient.4 Furthermore, as the ego is first and foremost a body ego, 5 attention will also be focused on the body-ego aspects of perception and object relation. This area has been systematically investigated by Schilder in a series of major contributions.6
Sources of Data. Almost all the material was obtained during the course of a regular analysis of one and a half years duration. There were a total of about 350 sessions. The patient was seen six times after the termination of the analysis, two of these occurring one year and four three years after its termination. The last two interviews were utilized, with the patient's consent, to gain further data for this paper, and were taken down by a recording apparatus.
The patient's wife was seen in a single s