ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the difference between male and female in the reproductive period. The nature of woman's reproductive function makes conflicts more complicated than they are in the male and therefore creates a greater disposition to neurotic illnesses. The overriding picture of the course of this reproductive activity is composed of a number of major, incisive events, all of which have a common characteristic. For both body and soul they are traumas, involving a rupture of continuity and pain. The psychical task of the woman in relation to these new obligations consists in overcoming the conflict that arises between the 'ego libidinal' and reproductive trends. The male reproductive function consists of sadistically mastering the sexual object and is completed with the attainment of organ pleasure, it is only the beginning of the complicated activity that devolves upon the female for the purpose of maintaining the species.
