The author discusses the problematic dichotomy that has evolved between “paternal” and “maternal” approaches enacted in psychoanalytic training and practice. He argues that this dichotomy stems not only from reasoned theoretical debate, but also from the need for analysts to do further emotional work in reuniting the ‘primal psychic couple’ and integrating the “law of the father” with the ‘love of the mother.’ Because much of this work is done unconsciously, it is further discussed in terms of a collaboration between the conscious ego and the ‘Unconscious Other,’ and contextualized by examining how the concept of the “unconscious” has evolved from a ‘seething cauldron of impulses’ that must be tamed, to an “organ of perception” from which much can be learned.