ABSTRACT
Horney by contrast emphasises the positive aspects of female sexuality and wonders if male envy of pregnancy could underlie male depreciation of women. Yet female sexuality is made up of extraordinary time rhythms that are all part of the female identity. Female anxiety about being deprived of phantasies with important self-protecting functions seems to be the female equivalent of male castration anxiety. Emanuele Bonasia agreed with Loredana Micati Squitieri's assessment of the defensive function of having male attributes following the experience of painful psychic fragility and emptiness. Micati Squitieri also compares and contrasts the psychopathology of the four patients cited and discusses how in normal children discovering the difference between sexes raises curiosity and intense mental activity, but not severe anxiety. Micati Squitieri thanked Arditi for the very interesting issue she proposed: the limit that the analytical couple has to face.
