Proceeding from a statement of Freud's to the effect that for the unconscious there is only one sexual organ, the phallus, the author advances the concept of a primordial 'phallic image'. Its ambiguity in the unconscious signifies a positive and negative (intact and damaged) aspect; it exerts a regressive pull toward the re-establishment of the infant's original narcissistic state repeatedly

breached at every stage of drive development. Thus, instinctual development and the tendency toward narcissism under the sway of the phallic image are antithetical forces operating in a 'dialetic movement' in the unfolding and maturation of the individual.