Ambivalence is the presence of two contradictory feelings toward the same object at the same time. Three tributaries to the mechanism are described. The common basis is a conflict between inner passive cravings and the fight against them by means of autarchic fantasies. The infantile sense of omnipotence of some infants is traumatically disrupted by the distorted perception of suckling as maternal aggression, as being

passively pierced. Bowel training is later similarly misconstrued as being passively victimized. Against these misconceptions, aggressive and libidinous counterdevices are normally set in motion. Where these countermeasures do not suffice, ambivalence develops, especially in children regressing to the anal stage. Ambivalence is the outward manifestation of a desperate unconscious struggle between the wish to be orally and anally penetrated and an anxious denial of this dangerous wish by pretending aggressively that autarchy is preserved.