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In the analysis of a character neurosis, the basic psychopathology was a flight from frightening femininity, creating a façade of masculine defenses. The patient's system of security rested on her being hermaphroditically complete, a powerful phallic woman like her mother. In her family the paths to normal feminine development were blocked. The patient could not achieve a healthy relationship with her father who had always been inadequate and was ultimately schizophrenic, a scorned and useless appendage to the family. Her mother was a typical phallic woman toward whom the patient was strongly ambivalent, with an underlying enslavement to her. The patient always rejected the idea of her own 'organlessness'. Her three older brothers, all outstandingly successful in intellectual professions, were a constant reminder that masculinity was important and was connected with intelligence. The only feminine person in the household was the badly deteriorated grandmother, who accentuated the conception that women are inferior. In the patient, pregenitality was most striking. Her excellent ego provided the means for various adequate phallic defenses. Her 'counterfeit' activity in intercourse was a denial of her femininity, an assumption of masculinity. Any approach to feminine passivity or feminine functioning produced great anxiety. Intercourse was for her a castrating act intended to render the partner impotent. Her oral and anal traits were prominent in the defensive system.