The patient described suffered from marked contradictions in behavior with feelings of inferiority to which he reacted on the one hand with fantasies portraying ambitious strivings, and on the other, with a wish for an undisturbed existence devoid of any real object relationships.

His childhood history disclosed an overzealous mother who made incessant demands on him, especially with regard to cleanliness, and an old nurse who satisfied all his narcissistic needs on a very primitive level. A very boastful father and an older and stronger brother forced the patient into a passive homosexual attitude.

Systematic analysis of his character attitudes demonstrated their function as a defense mechanism against his primitive narcissistic demands.