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Four analytic cases in whom conformity versus nonconformity appeared to be a prominent issue are reviewed. The author demonstrates that behind the nonconforming behaviors, opinions, or ideals of each patient there were a variety of other conflicts. The struggle between masculine and feminine strivings, conflicts
around aggression toward the father, the need to maintain an incorporative tie with the mother are among the feelings being defended against or gaining expression through the patient's complaints about pressure to conform. An instance was cited in which there first slowly emerged the attack upon conformity, the wish not to conform, and then the projection—the feeling that some other person was expecting the patient to behave in a conforming way. The author points out that external behavior might be at considerable variance from the feelings and fantasies in a given individual. 'Conformity could mean nonconformity, and nonconformity did not … necessarily mean that the individual was taking a stand against the established order or against an important person in authority.'