The sex of the psyche

The authors see masculine and feminine chiefly as modalities in which the psyche functions. The analytic space is a field which is always simultaneously concrete and symbolic, where the complexes of the patient and those of the analyst are woven together in highly complex patterns, one element of which is the gender of each protagonist. In this perspective, the issue of seduction must not be reduced to its sexual dimension alone. A few clinical vignettes illustrate these assertions.