ABSTRACT
The themes of crossing gender boundaries, of rituals, and of myths immediately evoke psychoanalytic interest. The issue of gender reminds us of propositions of the psychoanalytic theory of development. The kabbalistic view of gender crossing—or, better, the belief that genders may be joined so that male and female are united—assumes the possibility of the transformation of gender characteristics. Social and cultural determinants reach the infant and toddler only via the influence of the parents, who, in the first three years of life, are not perceived with gender characteristics. Progressive differentiation continues as the psychic organization proceeds from the phase of object constancy to the evolution of gender identity. If one assumes that a gender composite occurs on a phallic level, then one has to decide whether the thrust of the literature of the Kabbalah intends a transformation of the gender—that is, an absorption of the female into the male by simultaneously modifying the maleness.
