The Differentiation of An Androgynous Imago

The movement from androgynous to more sexually differentiated images is often characterized by a movement toward more differentiated states of consciousness. For example, the repressed phallic mother image often underlies phobic-obsessive states. As the patient's bisexual fantasies become conscious and are analyzed, the phobic-obsessive symptoms diminish. Or, again, homosexual acting out is often associated with the ego's identification with an image of the “male mother,” a male with breasts or female genitals. As the male hermaphroditic image becomes accessible to analysis, the ego becomes increasingly free of its unconscious identification with the bisexual image and the individual's male and female aspects achieve a more satisfying and integrated intrapsychic development.*

Momentary shifts from more to less regressive sexual imagery occur with shifts from less to more developed states of consciousness. When regression is fluid, one can note movements back and forth between more and less differentiated states and images, depending on the direction of the psychic flow. Because of the difficulty in observing such two-way momentary shifts or oscillations, they will not be focused on here. Such shifts tend to escape the notice even of trained observers, although they may be observed readily enough in dream reports. In this paper one long-term case, Mrs. S, has been studied because the changes were dramatic and occurred over long periods and so were relatively easy to observe and describe clearly.

Mrs. S presented fused pan-phobic and pan-obsessive states which were accompanied by androgynous dream images. In time this global presenting state broke into alternating phobic and obsessive