Numerous contemporary analyses have challenged traditional models of female psychosexual development, identifying their norms as implicitly androcentric Femaleness has been regarded as derivative or deviant, as less and “other” than maleness. Alternative, woman-centred, models emphasise three major aspects of female psychosexual development: affiliation (women and others), maternity (women as mothers), and alterity (women and otherness). For some theorists the affiliative/maternal emphasis constructs a model of healthy and desirable femaleness. For others it represents not only the outcome of millennia of female subordination but also provides a justification for perpetuation of that subordination. Whatever the resolution of these dilemmas, a woman-centred perspective of female psychosexual development is relevant to contemporary psychiatric thinking. This review will present such a perspective and raise some of those dilemmas.
References
1.
StollerRJ.Sex and gender: On the development of masculinity and femininity. New York: Science House, 1968.
2.
RubinG.The traffic in women: Notes on the “political economy” of sex. In: ReiterRR. Toward an anthropology of women. New York: Monthly Review, 1978.
3.
MillerJB.Toward a new psychology of women. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1978.
4.
JordanJVKaplanAGMillerJBStiverIPSurreyJL.Women's growth in connection. New York: Guilford, 1991.
5.
SurreyJ.Self-in-relation: A theory of women's development. Wellesley, MA: Stone Center for Developmental Studies. Wellesley College, 1985.
6.
ChodorowNJ.The reproduction of mothering. California: University of California Press, 1978.
7.
ChodorowNJ.Feminism and psychoanalytic theory. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989.
8.
DinnersteinD.The mermaid and the minotaur. New York: Harper and Row, 1977.
9.
GilliganC.In a different voice. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982.
10.
BrownLMGilliganC.Meeting at the crossroads. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992.
11.
IrigarayL.This sex which is not one (1977). In: ZanardiC, ed. Essential papers on the psychology of women. New York: New York University Press, 1990.
12.
MontrelayM.Inquiry into femininity (1977). In: ZanardiC, ed. Essential papers on the psychology of women. New York: New York University Press, 1990.
13.
KristevaJ.Desire in language. London: Basil Blackwell, 1981.
14.
BravermanL.Beyond the myth of motherhood. In: McGoldrickMAndersonCWalshF, eds. Women in families. New York: Norton, 1989; 227–243.
15.
Hare-MuslinRMarecekJ, eds. Making a difference: Psychology and the construction of gender. New Haven CT: Yale University Press, 1990.
16.
SegalL.Is the future female?London: Virago, 1987.
17.
MooreHL.Feminism and anthropology. Cambridge: Polity, 1988.
18.
OrtnerS.Is female to male as nature is to culture? In: RosaldoMZLamphereL, eds. Women, culture and society. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1974; 67–68.
19.
BacchiCL.Same difference. Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1990.
20.
EisensteinH.Contemporary feminist thought. Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1984.
21.
LernerG.The creation of patriarchy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986.
22.
de BeauvoirS.The second sex. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1972.
23.
FirestoneS.The dialectics of sex. New York: Bantam, 1979.
24.
LloydG.Man of reason: “Male” and “female” in Western philosophy. New York: Methuen, 1987.
25.
MidgleyM.Sex and personal identity, the Western individualistic tradition. Encounter June1984; 63:1.
26.
ConnellRW.Gender and power. Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1987.
27.
LukesS.Conclusion. In: CarrithersMCollinsSLukesS, eds. The category of the person. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985; 299–305.
28.
BrownGHarrisT.The social origins of depression. London: Tavistock, 1978.
29.
PenfoldSPWalkerGA.Women and the psychiatric paradox. New York: Eden, 1983.
30.
UssherJ.Women's madness: Misogyny or mental illness?London: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1991.
31.
EichenbaumLOrbachS.What do women want?London: Fontana, 1983.
32.
MilesA.Women and mental illness. Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1988.
33.
BrovermanIKVogelSBrovermanDClarksonFRosencrantzP.Sex-role stereotypes: a current appraisal. Journal of Social Issues1972; 28:59–78.
34.
BrovermanIKVogelSBrovermanDRosencrantzPSex-role stereotypes and clinical judgements of mental health. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology1970; 34:1–7.
35.
RitchieK.The little woman meets son of DSM-III. Journal of Medicine and Philosophy1989; 14:695–708.
36.
RosserSV.Is there androcentric bias in psychiatric diagnosis?Journal of Medicine and Philosophy1992; 17:214–231.
37.
RussellD.Psychiatric diagnosis and the oppression of women. Women and Therapy1986; 5:83–98.
38.
EhrenreichBEnglishD.For her own good. London: Pluto, 1979.
39.
ShorterE.Women's bodies. New Jersey: Transaction, 1991.
40.
Young-BruehlE.Freud on women: A reader. New York: Norton, 1990.
41.
FreudS.Three essays on the theory of sexuality (1905). Standard edition, 7:135–243. London: Hogarth, 1953.
42.
FreudS.The economic problem of masochism (1924). Standard Edition, 19:159–172. London: Hogarth, 1953.
43.
DeutschH.The psychology of women. Vol 1, 2. New York: Grune & Stratton, 1944/45.
44.
FreudS.A child is being beaten (1919). Standard edition, 17:179–204. London: Hogarth, 1953.
45.
FreudS.Some psychical consequences of the anatomical distinction between the sexes (1925). Standard edition, 19:248–258. London: Hogarth, 1953.
46.
MassonJM.The assault on truth. Toronto: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1984.
47.
MahlerMSPineFBergmanA.The psychological birth of the human infant. New York: Basic Books, 1975.
48.
MitchellJ.Psychoanalysis and feminism. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974.
MastersWHJohnsonVE.Human sexual inadequacy. Boston: Little Brown, 1970.
51.
HorneyK.Feminine psychology. New York: Norton, 1973.
52.
ThompsonC.Penis envy in women. Psychiatry1943; 6:123–125. Reprinted in: Miller JB, ed. Psychoanalysis and women. New York: Brunner/Mazel, 1973; 43–48.
53.
Fromm-ReichmannFGunstVK.On the denial of women's sexual pleasure (1950). In: MillerJB, ed. Psychoanalysis and women. New York: Brunner/Mazel, 1973; 75–82.
54.
FairbairnWRD.Object-relations and dynamic structures. In: Object-relations theory of the personality. New York: Basic Books, 1952.
55.
KleinM.Envy and gratitude. London: Basic Books, 1957.
56.
WinnicottDW.Playing and reality. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1971.
57.
BowlbyJ.The making and breaking of affectional bonds. London: Tavistock, 1979.
58.
AinsworthMDS.Attachments and other affectional bonds across the life cycle. In: ParkesMCStevenson-HinkeJMarrisP, eds. Attachment across the life cycle. London: Routledge, 1991:33–51.
59.
KohutH.The analysis of the self. New York: International Universities Press, 1971.
60.
LombrosoG, 1924. L'âme de la femme. Paris: Payot. Cited in: Lemoine-Luccioni Eugenie. The dividing of women or woman's lot. London: Free Association, 1987.
61.
BernSL.Beyond androgyny: Some presumptions for a liberated sexual identity. In: ShermanJDenmarkF, eds. The psychology of women. New York: Psychological Dimensions, 1978.
62.
JonesE.The early development of female sexuality. International Journal of Psychoanalysis1927; Vol VIII.
63.
FalcoKL.Psychotherapy with lesbian clients. New York: Brunner/Mazel, 1991.
64.
RichA.Compulsory heterosexuality and lesbian existence. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society1980; 5:631–660.
65.
RichA.Of woman born. London: Virago, 1976.
66.
BernardezT.Gender-based countertransference of female therapists in the psychotherapy of women. In: BraudeM, ed. Women, power, and therapy. New York: Harrington Park Press, 1987:25–39.
67.
WebbLJAmerican Psychiatric Association: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. 3rd ed.New York: Brunner/Mazel, 1981.
68.
WelldonE.Psychology and psychopathology in women — a psychoanalytic perspective. British Journal of Psychiatry1991; 158:85–92.
69.
LuepnitzDA.The family interpreted: Feminist theory in clinical practice. New York: Basic Books, 1988.
70.
MilesR.The women's history of the world. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1989.
71.
EngelsF.The origin of the family, private property and the State. LeacockE, ed. New York: International, 1972.
72.
PatemanC.The sexual contract. Cambridge: Polity, 1988.
73.
SiedleckySWyndhamD.Populate and perish. Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1990.
74.
MatthewsJJ.Good and mad women. Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1984.
75.
FoucaultM.The history of sexuality. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1981.
76.
WearingB.The ideology of motherhood. Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1984.
77.
WearingB.“Beyond the ideology of motherhood”. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Sociology1991; 26:36–58.
78.
WallersteinJ.Second chances: Men, women and children after a decade of divorce. New York: Ticknor and Fields, 1990.
79.
JessieB.The future of marriage. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1972.
80.
BadinterE.The myth of motherhood. London: Condor, 1981.
81.
LesterEP.On the psychosexual development of the female child. Journal of American Academy of Psychoanalysis1976; 4:515–527.
82.
WelldonE.Mother, Madonna, whore: The idealization and denigration of motherhood. New York: Guilford, 1988.
