Gender identity is the lens through which people experience being boy or girl, man or woman. It is a complex compromise formation that is not separate from the wishes, fears, and intrapsychic conflicts of other domains. Over the course of development, gender identity becomes layered and reconfigured. This paper looks at one child's experience of gender over several phases in her development in order to learn how gender is integrated into identity. At different times, as different conflicts came to the fore, she used gender to shape and lend definition to these conflicts. Conversely, her experiences in other spheres influenced her experience of gender.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Bem , S.L., ( 1993). The Lenses of Gender. New Haven: Yale University Press. Benjamin , J. (1988). The Bonds of Love. New York : Pantheon .
2.
——— (1991). Father and daughter: Identification with difference—A contribution to gender heterodoxy. Psychoanalytic Dialogues1:277—299.
3.
Bernstein, D. (1990). Female genital anxieties, conflicts and typical mastery modes. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis71:151—167.
4.
Birksted-Breen D. (1996). Phallus, penis, and mental space. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis77:649—657.
5.
Brenner, C. (1982). The Mind in Conflict. Madison, CT: International Universities Press.
6.
Butler, J. (1990). Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge.
Chodorow, N.J. (1996). Theoretical gender and clinical gender: Epistemological reflections on the psychology of women. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association44(suppl.):215—238.
9.
Coates, S.W. (1997). Is it time to jettison the concept of developmental lines? Gender and Psychoanalysis2:35—53.
10.
——— & Wolfe, S.M. (1995). Gender identity disorder in boys: The interface of constitution and early experience. Psychoanalytic Inquiry15:6—38.
11.
Consentino, C.E., Meyer-Bahlburg, H.F.L., Alpert, J.L., Weinberg, S.L., & Gaines, R. (1995). Sexual behavior problems and psychopathology symptoms in sexually abused girls. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry34:1033—1042.
12.
Dahl, E.K. (1996). Penis envy revisited. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child51:303—325.
13.
De Marneffe, D. (1997). Bodies and words: A study of young children's genital and gender knowledge. Gender andPsychoanalysis2:3—33.
14.
Dimen, M. (1991). Deconstructing difference: Gender, splitting, and transitional space. Psychoanalytic Dialogues1:335—352.
15.
Elise, D. (1997). Primary femininity, bisexuality, and the female ego ideal: A reexamination of female developmental theory. Psychoanalytic Quarterly46:489—517.
16.
Fast, I. (1984). Gender Identity: A Differentiation Model. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
17.
Foucault, M. (1980). The History of Sexuality, vol. 1, transl. R. Hurley . New York: Vintage.
18.
Freud, S. (1905). Three essays on the theory of sexuality. Standard Edition7:125—248.
19.
——— (1925). Some psychological consequences of the anatomical distinction between the sexes. Standard Edition19:243—258.
20.
——— (1931). Female sexuality. Standard Edition21:223—243.
21.
——— (1933). Femininity. Standard Edition22:112—135.
22.
Friedman, R.C., & Downey, J. (1995). Biology and the oedipus complex. Psychoanalytic Quarterly64:234—264.
23.
Goldner, V. (1991). Toward a critical relational theory of gender . Psychoanalytic Dialogues1:249—272.
24.
Harris, A. (1991). Gender as contradiction: The discussion of Freud's “The psychogenesis of a case of homosexuality in a woman.” Psychoanalytic Dialogues1:197—224.
25.
——— (1991a). Symposium on gender introduction. Psychoanalytic Dialogues1:243—248.
26.
Hoffman, L. (1996). Freud and feminine subjectivity. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association44(suppl):23—44.
27.
Horney, K. (1924). On the genesis of the castration complex in women . International Journal of Psycho-Analysis5:50—65.
28.
——— (1926). The flight from womanhood. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis7:324—339.
29.
Jacobs, T. (1999). Discussion of “Barbie and the tree of life: Reflections on gender development.”Presented to the Boston Psychoanalytic Society, March 9.
30.
Jones, E. (1927). The early development of female sexuality. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis8:459—472.
31.
Layton, L. (1998). Who's That Girl? Who's That Boy? Clinical Practice Meets Postmodern Gender Theory. Northvale, NJ: Aronson.
32.
Mayer, E. (1985). Everybody must be just like me. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis66:331—348.
33.
Mayes, L.C. (1999). Clocks, Engines, and Quarks—Love, Dreams, and Genes: What Makes Development Happen?Psychoanalytic Study of the Child44:169—192.
34.
Money, J. (1957). Imprinting and the establishment of gender role . Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry77:333—336.
35.
——— (1965). Sex Research: New Developments. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
36.
——— & Ehrhardt, A.A. (1972). Man and Woman, Boy and Girl. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
37.
Richards, A.K. (1992). The influence of sphincter control and genital sensation on body image and gender identity in women. Psychoanalytic Quarterly16:331—351.
38.
——— (1996). Primary femininity and female genital anxiety . Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association44(suppl.):261—281.
39.
Robbins, M. (1996). Nature, nurture, and core gender identity. Journal of the American Association44(suppl.):93—117.
40.
Roiphe, H., & Galenson, E. (1981). Infantile Origins of Sexual Identity. New York: International Universities Press .
41.
Sander, L.W. (1983). Polarity, paradox, and the organizing process in development. In Frontiers of Infant Psychiatry, ed. J. Call, E. Galenson, & R. TysonNew York: Basic Books, pp. 333—346.
42.
Stern, D.N. (1985). The Interpersonal World of the Infant. New York: Basic Books.
43.
Stoller, R. (1976). Primary Femininity. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association24(suppl.):59—78.
44.
——— (1985). Presentations of Gender. New Haven: Yale University Press.
45.
Sweetnam, A. (1996). The changing contexts of gender between fixed and fluid experience. Psychoanalytic Dialogues6:437—459.
46.
Thelen, E., & Smith, L.B. (1994). A Dynamic Systems Approach to the Development of Cognition and Action. Cambridge: MIT Press.
47.
Tyson, P. (1996). Female psychology: An introduction. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association44(suppl.):11—20.
48.
——— & Tyson, R. (1990). Psychoanalytic Theories of Development. New Haven: Yale University Press.
49.
Winnicott, D.W. (1953). Transitional objects and transitional phenomena . International Journal of Psycho-Analysis34:89—97.
