Freud has shown the role of the incest barrier in the general split in sexual object choice. Further details from clinical observation of male patients show clearly the interaction of dependence and hostilities. Some men categorize women according to the degree of their dependence upon them. These are the women whom they idealize but with whom they are sexually inhibited, in contrast to women who are dependent upon them and with whom they are fully potent. Others, because their sexuality is an outlet for so much hostility that it means to them an attack, are relatively impotent with women whom they respect, and sexually uninhibited only with those for whom they have no regard or sympathy. They divide women into two categories on this basis, and are only potent with the degraded ones who not only are not indentified with the incestuous objects, but whom the man can 'attack' because he has so little identification with them. Both mechanisms, the dependence and the hostility, frequently occur in the same individual, and are usually closely related.