ABSTRACT
Ralph Greenson, whose work with transsexuals enabled him to describe the early envy of the mother and the crippling effect it had on male development, maintained that boys had to dis-identify from mother, who was the boy's first identification figure, and counter-identify with father in order to develop their masculinity. Karl Figlio's contention about the absence of psychoanalytic studies on male internal space as part of a bigger problem of accepting the feminine identification within the male psyche. In this sense what is repressed by man, his internal space, is also repressed by psychoanalysis. The insecurity and vulnerability of male identity has been stressed by many authors apart from Robert J. Stoller and is usually seen as based on the male difficulty in integrating the femininity within the self. In this sense the feminine identification is experienced as a foreign object that seeks to undermine the stability of the masculine self.
