Emphasis in this paper has been on the father's influence on the girl's libidinal development. I hope to make his role in the development of the girl's ego and superego the subject of a future paper.

Following the oedipal conflict, the girl must establish a desexualized object-relationship to her father, enabling her later to accept the feminine role without guilt or anxiety and to give love to a young man in her peer group. What I have tried to point out is that whether or not the girl is able to achieve this, depends as