Romance novels have become increasingly popular and sexually explicit, in part because women may gain a sense of self through reading them and perhaps in reaction to the patriarchal structure of society. Women may seek escape and a sense of self-identity through the novels'"larger-than-life" characters and predictable endings. Readers of romance novels take pleasure in the heroine as the embodiment of traits they are unable to project in their own patriarchal surroundings. Reading a romance novel typically progresses in three stages: separation, identification, and assimilation. Separation represents the reader's interpretation of the character traits of the hero and heroine in terms of the separate animus and anima figures (male and female, respectively). The heroine represents the ideal woman who functions as the feminine model awaiting her animus complement. Attraction to the hero is the projection of the heroine's animus spirit. The next stage in the illustration of the relationship of hero and heroine is identification, typically involving misunderstandings, sexual harassment, transformation of the hero, and a happy ending. The final stage in the pursuit of self is the assimilation stage in which the accomplished merger of animus to feminine function signifies the final and full realization of self. The hero is always brutal and uncaring at the outset, but is transformed into a caring individual through assimilation with the anima spirit of the heroine. Romance novels succeed because they satisfy the unconscious need of animus projection and permit a recognition of real self. (SRT)