With the presentation of three clinical cases, the author concludes that the chief genetic determinant of male perversion is the perverting mother who characteristically frustrates any erotogenic demands except the oral ones. The perversion is viewed as a defense against psychosis. In no case is there a strong, good father. The father may be seen as simply operating within the equation breast=penis. In other cases the father is fantasied as the 'giver' substituting for the mother in that role. At times the father is seen as weak or nonexistent; at other times as aggressive and castrating.