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Although the phenomenon of male inhibition of urination in public places is probably quite common, there are no articles in the psychoanalytic literature on the subject. In this short paper, I will describe in some detail a transference resistance encountered in a patient who suffered from such an inhibition, and I will briefly allude to a second patient with similar symptoms.
Mr. A, a twenty-five-year old male, mentioned his problem with urinating in public early in his analysis. Although I made a mental note of this, the subject quickly faded from my conscious awareness. The early months of treatment were primarily concerned with the patient's feelings of anxiety when he was competing with other men, especially with his eminently successful businessman father. When I would attempt to link these anxieties to his feelings toward me in the transference, he would agree with me intellectually, but there was no real feeling of conviction in his voice.
The patient also expressed considerable apprehension about the possibility that he might be homosexual, inasmuch as he had occasional fantasies of being forced to submit orally or anally to a powerful male figure in order to achieve a desired goal. When I would attempt to connect his fears of homosexual submission