SEVERAL YEARS AGO I HAD OCCASION TO OBSERVE TWO TODDLERS who invented an imaginary companion that grew, briefly flourished, and eventually was completely forgotten. The subsequent development of the children suggested that this had been a normal developmental fantasy used to cope with certain difficulties of the anal stage, and that it had some special relationship to the formation of gender identity.

Intrigued by this observation, I later came across two female patients who, even as adults, retained vivid memories of their childhood companions. In these cases, where a distinctly deviant development had brought the women to analysis, the companion