O conceito da figura dos pais combinados e a identidade de gênero: reflexões psicanalíticas a partir de Melanie<b> </b>Klein

The purpose of this article is to investigate and discuss the childhood fantasy discovered by Klein, called the combined parent figure, and its possible relationships with the constitution of gender identity. To achieve this, a journey was undertaken through Klein's work using the methodology of a type of psychoanalytic research called research-investigation, where a concept or theme is followed in its formulation as well as in its epistemological and theoretical-technical developments within the same work and in those directly derived or influenced by it. It was observed that the combined parent figure, which represents in the child's psyche the union and intertwining of the mother and father—forming a monstrous and enigmatic being that the child must decipher—also lies at the root of the infant's early identifications with their parents, constituting the beginning of the superego, the primitive Oedipus complex, and also the core of gender identity. Unlike the more rigid and binary identificatory structure implied by the traditional Oedipus complex, the more primitive dynamic brought by the fantasy of the combined parents offers the child a possibility of more fluid and complex gender identifications, which remain embedded in them as a prototypical core that can be accessed in future identifications.