Libido theory and the idea of an innate matrix of bisexuality are an inadequate basis on which to understand female psychology. Rather, it is the mutual influence of sexuality, aggression, object relations, and a superego that inherits the object-related conflicts of early childhood, intertwined as these are with gender issues, that determine the way a woman experiences herself A woman can have a basically confident, narcissistically valued sense of femaleness and at the same time be troubled by intense feelings of inadequacy and deprivation. Instead of arbitrarily attributing these feelings to penis envy and a sense of castration, based on the idea of bisexuality as bedrock, this paper suggests that we consider primary femininity as bedrock, but that the superego, as heir to unresolved preoedipal and oedipal object-related conflicts, functions to maintain these painful emotions. Clinical material illustrates the utility of these ideas.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Amsterdam, B. K. (1972). Mirror self-image reactions before age two. Devel. Psychol., 5:297–305.
2.
Balint, E. (1973). Technical problems found in the analysis of women by a woman analyst: a contribution to the question “what does a woman want?”Int. J. Psychoanal., 54:195–201.
3.
Bernstein, D. (1990). Female genital anxieties, conflicts, and typical mastery modes. Int. J. Psychoanal., 71:151–165.
4.
Blum, H. P. (1976). Masochism, the ego ideal, and the psychology of women. J. Amer. Psychoanal. Assn., 24(Suppl.):157–191.
5.
Brenner, C. (1991). A psychoanalytic perspective on depression. J. Amer. Psychoanal. Assn., 39:25–43.
6.
Brunswick, R. M. (1940). The preoedipal phase of libido development. In The Psychoanalytic Reader, ed. R. Fliess. New York: Int. Univ. Press, 1948, pp. 261–283.
7.
Chasseguet-Smirgel, J. (1970). Female Sexuality: New Psychoanalytic Views. Ann Arbor, MI: Univ. Michigan Press.
8.
Dahl, E. K. (1989). Daughters and mothers: oedipal aspects of the witch-mother. Psychoanal. Study Child, 44:267–280.
9.
Deutsch, H. (1932). On female homosexuality. In The Psychoanalytic Reader, ed. R. Fliess. New York: Int. Univ. Press, 1948, pp. 237–260.
10.
Deutsch, H. (1944). The Psychology of Women: A Psychoanalytic Interpretation, Vol. 1. New York: Grune & Stratton.
11.
Edgcumbe, R. M. & Burgner, M. (1975). The phallic-narcissistic phase: a differentiation between preoedipal and oedipal aspects of phallic development. Psychoanal. Study Child, 30:161–180.
12.
Edgcumbe, R. M.Lundberg, S., Markowitz, R. & Salo, F. (1976). Some comments on the concept of the negative oedipal phase in girls. Psychoanal. Study Child, 31:35–62.
13.
Emde, R. N. (1983). The prerepresentational self and its affective core. Psychoanal. Study Child, 38:165–192.
14.
Fast, I. (1978). Developments in gender identity: the original matrix. Int. Rev. Psychoanal., 5:265–274.
15.
Fast, I. (1979). Developments in gender identity: gender differentiation in girls. Int. Rev. Psychoanal., 6:441–453.
16.
Freud, S. (1905). Three essays on the theory of sexuality. S. E., 7.
17.
Freud, S. (1915-1917). Introductory lectures on psychoanalysis. S. E., 15 & 16.
18.
Freud, S. (1923). The infantile genital organization. S. E., 19.
19.
Freud, S. (1931). Female sexuality. S.E., 21.
20.
Friedman, R. C. (1988). Male Homosexuality: A Contemporary Psychoanalytic Perspective. New Haven, CT. Yale Univ. Press.
21.
Galenson, E. & Roiphe, H. (1976). Some suggested revisions concerning early female development. J. Amer. Psychoanal. Assn., 24(Suppl.):29–57.
22.
Greenacre, P. (1953). Certain relationships between fetishism and the faulty development of the body image. Psychoanal. Study Child, 8:79–98.
23.
Greenacre, P. (1958). Early physical determinants in the development of the sense of identity. In Emotional Growth, Vol. I. New York: Int. Univ. Press, 1971, pp. 113–127.
24.
Greenson, R. R. (1954). The struggle against identification. J. Amer. Psychoanal. Assn., 2:200–217.
25.
Grossman, W. I. & Stewart, W. (1976). Penis envy: from childhood wish to the developmental metaphor. J. Amer. Psychoanal. Assn., 24 (Suppl.): 193–212.
26.
Kestenberg, J. S. (1956). On the development of maternal feelings in early childhood. Psychoanal. Study Child, 11:257–291.
27.
Kris, E. (1956). On some vicissitudes of insight in psychoanalysis. Int. J. Psychoanal., 37:445–465.
28.
Kleeman, J. A. (1965). A boy discovers his penis. Psychoanal. Study Child, 20:239–266.
29.
Kleeman, J. A. (1966). Genital self-discovery during a boy's second year: a followup. Psychoanal. Study Child, 21:358–392.
30.
Kleeman, J. A. (1972). The establishment of core gender identity in normal girls. Arch. Sex. Behav., 1:117–129.
31.
Kubie, L. S. (1974). The drive to become both sexes. Psychoanal. Q, 43:349–126.
32.
Lampl-De Groot, J. (1927). The evolution of the Oedipus complex in women. In The Psychoanalytic Reader, ed. R. Fliess. New York: Int. Univ. Press, 1948, pp. 180–194.
33.
Lewis, M. & Brooks-Gunn, J. (1979). Social Cognition and the Acquisition of Self. New York: Plenum.
34.
Mahler, M.S. (1981). Aggression in the service of separation-indviduation: a case study of a mother-daughter relationship. Psychoanal. Q., 50:625–638.
35.
Mahler, M.S.Pine, F. & Bergman, A. (1975). The Psychological Birth of the Human Infant: Symbiosis and Individuation. New York: Basic Books.
36.
Makari, G. J. (1991). German philosophy, Freud, and the riddle of the woman. J. Amer. Psychoanal. Assn., 39:183–213.
37.
Mcdevitt, J. B. (1975). Separation-individuation and object constancy. J. Amer. Psychoanal. Assn., 23:713–743.
38.
Modell, A. H. (1965). On having the right to a life: an aspect of the superego's development. Int. J. Psychoanal., 46:323–331.
39.
Moore, B. E. & Fine, B., Eds. (1967). A Glossary of Psychoanalytic Terms and Concepts. New York: American Psychoanalytic Association.
40.
Moore, B. E. & Fine, B., Eds. (1990). Psychoanalytic Terms and Concepts. New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press.
41.
Nagera, H. (1975). Female Sexuality and the Oedipus Complex. New York: Aronson.
42.
Parens, H., Pollock, L., Stern, J. & Kramer, S. (1976). On the girl's entry into the Oedipus complex. J. Amer. Psychoanal. Assn., 24:79–107.
43.
Rangell, L. (1991). Castration. J. Amer. Psychoanal. Assn., 39:3–23.
44.
Roiphe, H. & Galenson, E. (1981). Infantile Origins of Sexual Identity. New York: Int. Univ. Press.
45.
Sandler, J., Holder, A. & Meers, D. (1963). The ego ideal and the ideal self. Psychoanal. Study Child, 18:139–158.
46.
Schulman, A. H. & Kaplowitz, C. (1977). Mirror image response during the first two years of life. Devel. Psychol, 10:133–142.
47.
Stoller, R. J. (1968). Sex and Gender: On the Development of Masculinity and Femininity. New York: Science House.
48.
Stoller, R. J. (1976). Primary femininity. J. Amer. Psychoanal. Assn.,24(Suppl.): 59–78.
49.
Stoller, R. J. (1985). Presentations of Gender. New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press.
50.
Tyson, P. (1982). A developmental line of gender identity, gender role, and choice of love object, J. Amer. Psychoanal. Assn., 30:59–84.
51.
Stoller, R. J. &: Tyson, R. L. (1990). Psychoanalytic Theories of Development. New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press.
