ABSTRACT
In psychoanalysis, reflection on the constructs "father" and "mother" has determined the formulation of fundamental psychic functions, whose consequences affect the whole process of the child's mental development, being psychic functions differentiating constituents of masculinity and femininity. In the analytical context, by using the "presence through the absence", the analyst tries to refer the individual to very primitive elaborative processes, where the individual will become the latent organiser of different types of undifferentiated representations. Attachment studies have shown how the development of the masculine identity is facilitated by the good quality of the early mother-boy relationship, and not by the quality of the separation. In the therapeutic relationship, the analysis should be conceived as the exercise of masculinity, in relation to femininity, in a demanding movement regarding the analytic pair. Both can be seen as mental functions that relate in the analysis and in life.
