The uncommitted male and his female counterpart

In consonance with the new sexual freedom of our time, a distinct personality type has come to my attention in my clinical work: the uncommitted man and woman. Such a man and his female counterpart compulsively reenact the destructive, disappointing, infantile mother fixation, as well as the oedipal struggle, through a series of sexual relationships. Both men and women of this type fearfully avoid the sadomasochistic marriage model of the long-suffering depressive mother and the beleaguered father. Narcissistic wounds result from being used as narcissistic adjuncts by their parents, only to be dropped erratically or upon the birth of the next sibling. Consequences of the pathological separation-individuation process are feelings of abandonment, depression, and low self-esteem. Object constancy is interfered with by the stranglehold of the strong ambivalence.