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Discussion of a preadolescent patient illustrates the importance of the consolidation of the latency period as a prerequisite for entering the adolescent phase of drive organization. In this ten-year-old boy it was necessary before the analysis
could proceed to bring about some attainment of latency by having the mother frustrate the boy's open sexual advances.
The author next discusses the differences in the paths followed toward genital organization by the boy and by the girl, the boy following a more circuitous route by way of pregenital drive cathexis while the girl turns more directly toward the opposite sex. Castration anxiety is again dominant in the boy in preadolescence but primarily in relation to the castrating phallic mother and this theme is central for this phase. Eventually a turn toward a homosexual defense against castration anxiety is employed before a final thrust toward masculinity. In the girl a massive repression of pregenitality must occur before she can move into the Oedipal phase; she defends herself against the regressive pull to the preoedipal mother by a forceful turning to heterosexuality. A failure in this process often has occurred in feminine delinquency; a case is offered for illustration. For successful analysis the adolescent needs a foothold on the Oedipal level before the earlier fixations can become accessible.