Postmodern sensibilities, generally associated with relational psychoanalysis, are applicable also in traditional and contemporary Freudian psychoanalytic contexts. Historically speaking, views of femininity and female sexuality may be ordered according to positions designated as premodern, modern, and postmodern. This temporal continuum provides a basis for incorporating aspects of postmodern feminist approaches to deconstructing gender into a more traditional yet contemporary psychoanalytic framework. The postmodern “crisis of category” is addressed through a critique from a modern psychoanalytic point of view of the gender stereotyping inherent in certain false binaries and either/or thinking of premodern psychoanalytic thinking regarding female (as well as male) sex and gender. The cultural changes brought about by the consciousness-raising of postmodern feminist and contemporary psychoanalytic thinking contribute significantly to evolutionary changes in the understanding of gender that are further internalized and represented intrapsychically. That is, sequential transformations in the internalization of new cultural norms influence the development of still more new cultural norms, so that progression in these identificatory markers of gender can be observed over successive generations.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Balsam, R. (1996). The pregnant mother and the body image of the daughter. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association44 (Suppl.): 410—427.
2.
Bassin, D. (1996). Beyond the he and she: Toward the reconciliation of masculinity and femininity in the postoedipal female mind. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association44 (Suppl.):157—190.
Benjamin, J. (1996). In defense of gender ambiguity. Gender & Psychoanalysis1:27—44.
5.
Bernstein, D. (1990). Female genital anxieties, conflicts, and typical mastery modes. International Journal of Psychoanalysis71:151—165.
6.
Blum, H.P. (1976). Masochism, the ego ideal, and the psychology of women. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association24 (Suppl.): 157—191.
7.
Butler, J. (1990). Gender Trouble and the Subversion of Identity . New York: Routledge.
8.
Chodorow, N. (1996). Theoretical gender and clinical gender: Epistemological reflections on the psychology of women. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association44 (Suppl.):215—238.
9.
Deutsch, H. (1930). The significance of masochism in the mental life of women. International Journal of Psychoanalysis11:48—60.
10.
——— (1944—1945). The Psychology of Women . 2 vols. New York: Grune & Stratton.
11.
Dimen, M. (1991). Deconstructing difference: Gender, splitting, and transitional space. Psychoanalytic Dialogues1:335—352.
12.
——— (1999). From breakdown to breakthrough. Female Sexuality: Contemporary Engagements, ed. D. Bassin.Northvale, NJ: Aronson, pp. 407—420.
13.
Elise, D. (1997). Primary femininity, bisexuality, and the female ego ideal: A re-examination of female developmental theory. Psychoanalytic Quarterly66:489—517.
14.
Freud, A. (1922). The relation of beating fantasies to a daydream . In The Writings of Anna Freud. Vol. 1. New York: International Universities Press, 1974, pp. 137—157.
15.
Freud, S. (1905a). Fragment of an analysis of a case of hysteria . Standard Edition7:1—122.
16.
——— (1905b). Three essays on the theory of sexuality. Standard Edition7:130—243.
17.
——— (1906). My views on the part played by sexuality in the aetiology of the neuroses. Standard Edition7:269—279.
18.
——— (1925). Some psychological consequences of the anatomical differences between the sexes. Standard Edition19:248—258. ——— (1927). Fetishism. Standard Edition21:149—157.
19.
——— (1931). Female sexuality. Standard Edition21:223—245.
20.
Galenson, E., & Roiphe, H. (1976). Some suggested revisions concerning early female development. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association24 (Suppl.):29—57.
21.
Garber, M. (1992). Vested Interests. New York : Harper Collins, 1993.
22.
Gediman, H.K. (1990). Men masquerading as women: Imposture, illusion, and denouement in the play M. Butterfly. Psychoanalytic Psychology10:469—479.
23.
——— (2001). Review of D. Bassin, ed., Female Sexuality: Contemporary Engagements. Psychoanalytic Psychology18:602—611.
24.
——— (2003a) Gender benders: Premodern, modern, and postmodern perspectives. Precirculated paper presented to the American Psychoanalytic Association, Boston, June 2003.
25.
——— (2003b). Male object choice in women with homosexual desire . In Sexual Faces, ed. C. Schwartz & M. Schulman, New York: International Universities Press, pp. 93—114.
26.
Grossman, W.I., & Stewart, W.A. (1976). Penis envy: From childhood wish to developmental metaphor. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association24 (Suppl.):193—212.
27.
Harris, A. (1991). Gender as contradiction. Psychoanalytic Dialogues1:197—224.
28.
——— (1996). The conceptual power of multiplicity. Contemporary Psychoanalysis32:537—552.
29.
Hoffman, I. (1991). Some practical implications of a social constructivist view of the psychoanalytic situation. Psychoanalytic Dialogues2:287—304.
30.
Horney, K. (1924). On the genesis of the castration complex in women . International Journal of Psychoanalysis5:50—65.
31.
——— (1926). The flight from womanhood: The masculinity-complex in women as viewed by men and women. International Journal of Psychoanalysis7:324—339.
32.
——— (1933). The denial of the vagina: A contribution to the problem of genital anxieties specific to women. International Journal of Psychoanalysis14:57—70.
33.
Hwang, D.H. (1989). M. Butterfly. New York: New American Library.
34.
Jones, E. (1927). The early development of female sexuality. International Journal of Psychoanalysis8:459—472.
35.
——— (1933). The phallic phase. International Journal of Psychoanalysis14:1—33.
36.
——— (1935). Early female sexuality. International Journal of Psychoanalysis16:263—273.
37.
Kaplan, L. (1991). Female Perversions. New York : Doubleday.
38.
Kestenberg, J.S. (1976). Regression and reintegration in pregnancy. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association24 (Suppl.):213—250.
39.
Kleeman, J.A. (1976). Freud's views on early female sexuality in the light of direct child observation. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association24 (Suppl.):3—27.
40.
Kristeva, J. (1986). The Kristeva Reader, ed. T. Moi.Oxford: Blackwell.
41.
Kubie, L. (1978). The drive to be both sexes. Psychoanalytic Quarterly43:349—426.
42.
Kulish, N. (2000). Primary femininity. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association48:1355—1379.
43.
Lerner, H. (1976). Parental mislabeling of female genitals as a determinant of penis envy and learning inhibitions in women. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association24 (Suppl.):269—283.
44.
Mayer, E.L. (1995). The phallic castration complex and primary femininity: Paired developmental lines toward female gender identity. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association43:17—38.
45.
Parens, H., Pollock, L., Stern, J., & Kramer, S. (1976). The girl's entry into the Oedipus complex. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association24 (Suppl.):79—107.
46.
Person, E. (1976). Initiation fantasies and transvestitism: Discussion . Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association24:547—551.
47.
——— (1983). Review of Alan P. Bell & Martin S. Weinberg, Homosexualities: A Study of Diversity among Men and Women. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 31:306—315.
48.
——— & Ovesey, L. (1974). The transsexual syndrome in males: Primary transsexualism . American Journal of Psychotherapy28:4—20.
49.
Richards, A.K. (1996). Primary femininity and female genital anxiety . Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association44:(Suppl):261—281.
50.
Rivera, M. (1989). Linking the psychological and the social: Feminism, post-structuralism, and multiple personality. Dissociation2:24—31.
51.
Riviere, J. (1929). Womanliness as a masquerade. In The Inner World and Joan Riviere, ed. A. Hughes.London: Karnac Books, 1991, pp. 133—153.
52.
Sherfey, M.J. (1966). The evolution and nature of female sexuality in relation to psychoanalytic theory. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association14:28—125.
53.
Stoller, R.J. (1976). Primary femininity. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association24 (Suppl.):59—78.
54.
Weedon, C. (1987). Feminist Practice and Poststructuralist Theory . Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
