The next example demonstrates the same ideation, but the appeal for a penis is made to the mother and completely by passes the father. The patient in this instance was a dependent homosexual woman of 26 who was living in a mother daughter type of homosexual relationship with an older woman. She entered therapy because she was dissatisfied with her existence and saw no future in it. She wanted to break off with her paramour in order to go out with men, but the prospect of being on her own frightened her so much that she had been unable to make the break. In the course of the therapy she was eventually confronted with the necessity of taking the decisive step of leaving the protection of the older woman. She daily proclaimed to the therapist her readiness to do so, but the days passed, and she failed to make the move. Instead, in her dreams, she proposed a series of alternatives, each of which permitted her to retain a dependent adaptation.

First, she dreamed that she left the older woman, but only to be adopted by a wealthy, widowed uncle, who, in reality, had considerable renown as an amateur chef and whose larder was stocked with fine imported foods. In the dream she feasted on the many delicacies he prepared, and she felt well fed, safe, and happy. The therapist pointed out that she had simply exchanged a maternal object for a paternal object, and that the underlying need for dependency had been left intact.

The patient then reported another dream. Once again she left the older woman, but this time she married the therapist, who loved her very dearly and provided for her every need. The therapist agreed that this was an improvement over the previous dream, and was a move in the desired heterosexual direction, but it still did not solve her basic problem that of dependency. It was this problem that stood in her way, and she would never leave the older woman until she faced it.

That night the patient dreamed that she took her pet cat, a spayed male, to her childhood home and asked her mother to exchange it for an intact male with a penis. She identified herself with the castrated male cat, and then in her associations she explained that going into the world as an independent person was a masculine pursuit, and if she could be changed into a man she was sure she could accomplish it. It was up to her mother, who was originally responsible for her castration, to replace the missing penis. The therapist interpreted this wish as still another magical solution, just like the first two, and, as such, it would work no better. She would have to learn to be independent as a woman. The penis had nothing to do with it. At any rate, it was not possible to get one and, therefore, she really had no choice.

The patient felt trapped by this challenge, and in her next dream she saw herself with the therapist in his office, but she was suddenly struck deaf and she heard nothing that he said. In this way she hoped to ward off the therapy and hold on to her neurotic dependency. The therapist commented simply that this wouldn't work either.

The patient thereupon dreamed that the therapist was murdered. This was her last defensive maneuver. She finally got down to business, and in the next few weeks moved away from the older woman into an apartment of her own.

Two other reparative fantasies involving the acquisition of a penis occur in dependent women with sufficient frequency to warrant their mention. One of these occurs in dependent women who had male siblings that were favored by their parents, or whose parents wanted a boy. A failure in adaptation in such women fosters the wish to be a boy on the grounds that it would better insure the gratification of dependency needs from parents or parental substitutes. The other fantasy used by dependent women is somewhat more complicated. Some of these women want a penis so that they can displace their fathers, marry their mothers, and have sexual intercourse with them. The motivation in this fantasy is not sexual; rather the patient makes use of the sexual act as an instrument to further her dependency policy. She is not concerned with sexual pleasure for herself, but wants only to give such pleasure to her mother, in return for which she hopes to be repaid with the desired protection and support.