Over the past few years, psychoanalysts have observed an apparent clinical contradiction. Women who have been successful by their own criteria and those of others seek help with problems which they experience as representing an irreconcilable conflict between their needs in personal relationships and what they feel the world expects of them. Conflict is felt between “independence,” defined as the capacity for functioning in an “autonomous” manner, and attachments to others. They believe that “independence” is a sine qua non of maturity and judge themselves to be deficient, not measuring up to their ego ideals and expectations of adult functioning.