Symbiosis Anxiety and the Development of Masculinity

Symbiosis anxiety is the fear one may not escape from the primitive urge to merge again with mother. If, as is suggested, there is a stage at the beginning of life in both males and females when one feels as if a part of mother, this will establish a feminine quality in one's identity. While helpful for the girl who is to become feminine, it can threaten the boy's capacity for masculinity. Much of what a society calls masculinity may be, then, an attempt to keep separate from mother's attraction.