In this psychoanalytic study of four patients who struggled against identifying themselves with an important parental figure, Greenson discusses incorporation, introjection, and the metapsychology of identification. Each patient had introjected, and identified himself with, a hated parent but tried to remain unaware of this identification. Behind a shallow positive Oedipus complex lay strong pregenital libidinal and aggressive, passive and active strivings toward the parent of the same sex. The patients were aware only of hatred for the parent of the same sex. The parent of the opposite sex was later idealized and became part of the ego ideal. The ambivalence in these patients was different from that usually observed in neurotic patients. Love and hate were definitely separated from each other (a condition more infantile than ambivalence), and sudden vacillations occurred between love and hate. Fusion of affects represents a higher level of maturation than rapid alternations of opposite affects.