Attention is drawn to the significance, for the psychic development of the adult male, of the impossibility to fulfill the preoedipal wish to be pregnant and bear children like mother. The obstacles to be overcome are the feelings of rage, jealousy, rivalry and above all the feelings of impotence and helplessness, and the destructive aggression which accompany these experiences. In early childhood childbearing is experienced as achievement, power and competition with the mother. It represents being active like mother. It is an identification with the active producing mother.

It is my impression that this problem plays an important role in numerous men and that it is one of the greatest tasks in the preoedipal phase of the male to elaborate these conflicts without suffering a disturbance in development.