The author distinguishes a third type of Oedipal complex (beside the hostile and negative), which he calls 'displaced'. Typically, the child is brought up in a family with a dominant, masculine mother and a weak, dominated father. The mother functions psychologically as a father. She is the phallic mother to whom the child will direct its castration anxiety whereas the father will be entirely devaluated. In its relationship to its father it will imitate the mother's contempt. The relationship to the phallic mother has the ambivalence that usually characterizes the relationship to the father. The common complaint of such a patient is his wish for affection from a mother. Some of these patients can sustain only a platonic relationship with a female love object whereas a sexual object must be devaluated. In certain cases the fear of castration may lead defensively to passive homosexuality. The main distinction from the negative Oedipus complex is the fact that the sexual object remains the mother or her substitute and that there is only a change in aim (passivity).