DISCUSSION: Dr. Sander Abend concurred in the proposed psychoanalytic theory of affects; he awaits clinical confirmation of Dr. Brenner's views. He suggested that unconscious residues of childhood perceptions of the anatomical genital differences may have led to analytic "clarity" about male psychosexual development and "haziness" about that of the female. Dr. Helen Davidoff-Hirsch disagreed with Dr. Brenner's emphasis on depressive affect as the major central issue for females. To correct this perspective, she looked to the pregenital phases which lie "beneath" the oedipal era, adding richness and predetermining its nature. She particularly referred to primary feminine identification with the mother and the discovery of the emergence of feminine identity during separation-individuation, as observed by Mahler. This developmental view suggested that the castration complex had two phases: a rapprochement phase and a phallic phase. Knowledge of the preoedipal roots of feminine