ABSTRACT
This article is based on a paper read at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association in Chicago, September 1960. One of the hypotheses of this writing is need-complementarity, a dovetailing between the deep motives of closely relating members. This is both a resource for each individual and a cohesive force for relating. The prototype is heterosexuality. The male’s needs are complemented by the female’s needs. At its primitive manifestations need-complementarity can lead to fusion and undifferentiation. The sick child’s guilt-laden needs for self-destruction may collude with the possessive needs of the parents. On a more differentiated level, one party’s evolving identity demarcation promotes the emergence of the other member’s autonomous individuation.
