Let us examine more closely the reality circumstances under which the dependent adult resorts to these reparative infantile fantasies. Here, certain social configurations become pertinent. Ours is a fiercely competitive culture that is intensely demanding in its pressures for superlative performance. The emphasis invariably falls on success, and there is little room for compromise without loss of face. This social ideal is intimately related to our conventional standards for the masculine and feminine sociosexual roles. Masculinity is equated with strength, dominance, superiority; femininity, with weakness, submissiveness, inferiority. The former represents success; the latter failure. It is in this cultural context that Freud's ideas about activity and passivity must be redefined. These two polarities are not constituent parts of a sexual instinct. In fact, they have nothing to do with sexuality as such but are really expressions of the individual's capacity for assertion in any behavior area. In our culture the premium is on self assertion, and the man who lacks it and fails to meet success goals is plagued with doubts about his masculinity. Thus any adaptive failure sexual, social, or vocational may be perceived unconsciously as a failure in the masculine role and, which is worse, may be symbolically extended through an equation that is calculated only to intensify the anxiety incident to the failure. This equation is the following: I am a failure = I am castrated = I am not a man = I am a woman = I am a homosexual.

The operation of this equation can be easily demonstrated in dream material.' Consider the following example, the dream of a medical student who missed an easy diagnosis that was subsequently picked up by another member of his group:

It was a scene in front of my childhood house. A tremendous group of people was assembled to greet my arrival. It was like the return of the prodigal son. I was a great celebrity. I drove up in a red Cadillac and everybody began to applaud. There was a Negro porter there, a little colored midget. I got on my knees, took out his penis, and began to kiss it. The crowd hooted in derision. I woke up in disgust. Did it mean I was a fairy?

Here, the patient's aspirations for success were given a sharp blow by his mistake of the day before. This competitive defeat is ultimately symbolized in the dream as a homosexual submission to a person he considered markedly inferior. We see, then, that any failure in assertion in any activity that can conventionally be classified under the heading of "masculinity" may set in motion a dynamic chain of events that can terminate in an anxiety misidentified by the patient as "homosexual." This is the case in the dream. The anxiety is perceived by the patient as a "homosexual" one, but in reality it has to do with competition and status. (see - Reparative Infantile Fantasies Part II)