Psychoanalytic Reflections on a Gender-free Case: Into the Void

by Toronto; Ellen L.K.

• ISBN13: 9781583917893
• ISBN10: 1583917896
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-09-27
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

The last two decades of psychoanalytic discourse have witnessed a marked transformation in the way we think about women and gender. The assignment of gender carries with it a host of assumptions, yet without it we can feel lost in a void, unmoored from the world of rationality, stability and meaning. The feminist analytic thinkers whose work is collected here confront the meaning established by the assignment of gender and the uncertainty created by its absence. The articles brought together inPsychoanalytic Reflections on a Gender-freeCase: Into the Voidaddress a cross-section of significant issues that have both chronicled and facilitated the changes of the last two decades of feminist psychoanalysis. Difficult issues which have previously been ignored (such as the pregnancy of the therapist or sexual abuse regarded as more than a fantasy) are considered first. The book goes on to address family perspectives as they interact and shape the child's experience of growing up male orfemale. Other topics covered are the authority of personal agency as influenced by the language and theory of patriarchy, male-centered concepts that consistently define women as inferior, and the concept of gender as being co-constructed within a relationship. Thus the authors explore the notion of gender identity as an ongoing negotiation among multiple gendered selves. The gender-free case presented here will fascinate all psychoanalysts interested in exploring ways of grappling with the elusive nature of gender, as well as those studying gender studies.

Table of Contents

Notes on contributors	xi
Introduction	1	(8)
Ellen L. K. Toronto
PART I Gender unbound	9	(38)
Case presentation	11	(11)
Ellen L. K. Toronto
The feminine unconscious in psychoanalytic theory	22	(25)
Ellen L. K. Toronto
PART II Suspending certainty in the consulting room	47	(64)
Commentary on Part II	49	(5)
Molly Donovan
Childhoods driven wrong	54	(21)
Judith L. Alpert
An analyst's pregnancy loss and its effects on treatment disruption and growth	75	(15)
Barbara Gerson
Working in the space between psychoanalytic and trauma-oriented approaches to stories of abuse	90	(21)
Joan Sarnat
PART III Family relationships: shifting perspectives	111	(60)
Commentary on Part III	113	(6)
Nancy Mcwilliams
Selfobjects, Oedipal objects and mutual recognition: a self-psychological reappraisal of the female ``Oedipal victor''	119	(13)
Christine C. Kieffer
Demeter and Persephone revisited: ambivalence and separation in the mother-daughter relationship	132	(11)
Molly Donovan
Boys' envy of mother and the consequences of this narcissistic mortification	143	(11)
Ruth F. Lax
Mothering and fathering processes in the psychoanalytic art	154	(17)
Nancy Mcwilliams
PART IV Beneath the bedrock: the gender of desire	171	(44)
Commentary on Part IV	173	(4)
Gemma Ainslie
The female person and how we talk about her	177	(17)
Polly Young-Eisendrath
Woman and desire: why women may not want to want	194	(21)
Dianne Elise
PART V Multiplicity: postmodern revisions of gender	215	(83)
Commentary on Part V	217	(10)
Christine C. Kieffer
Beyond narcissism: toward a negotiation model of gender identity	227	(16)
Lynne Layton
Ironic gender, authentic sex	243	(13)
Virginia Goldner
Gender stereotypes and the change towards greater personal maturity in psychotherapy	256	(12)
Gwendolyn L. Gerber
The music of ``masculinity'': clinical attention to tone and rhythm in gender construction	268	(17)
Steven H. Knoblauch
Race in psychoanalytic space	285	(13)
Kimberlyn Leary
Afterword	298	(9)
Muriel Dimen
Index	307

Excerpts

"The contributions brought together in Psychoanalytic Reflections on a Gender-free Case address a cross-section of significant issues that have both chronicled and facilitated the changes in feminist psychoanalysis since the mid-1980s. Difficult issues which have previously been ignored [such as the pregnancy of the therapist or sexual abuse regarded as more than a fantasy] are considered first. The book goes on to address family perspectives as they interact and shape the child's experience of growing up male or female. Other topics covered are the authority of personal agency as influenced by the language and theory of patriarchy, male-centred concepts that consistently define women as inferior, and the concept of gender as being co-constructed within a relationship."--BOOK JACKET.