The pregnant woman's place and where to find it

A two-part study examined attitudes toward pregnancy. The first part — a department store survey — looked at the location of maternity clothes in different status stores. Clothes were located differently, depending on the social class of the store. High status stores located them in or near lingerie and/or loungewear. Lower status stores located them in or near uniforms and/or half sizes. It is suggested that these differences reflect differential attitudes toward pregnancy in the different social classes. The second part of the study examined pregnant women's attitudes toward themselves. In line with the department store findings, there were differences between upper-class women and working-class women in self-report data. These data suggest that pregnancy is viewed differently, depending on social class.     

A woman's homosexual transference with a male analyst

A woman in analysis with a male analyst developed a significant homosexual transference during the middle phase of treatment. The expression and working through of this material (in displacement) is seen as reflecting one example of the influence of gender on the psychoanalytic process. For the male analyst to utilize this transference, he must make a clear distinction between the negative oedipal phase and the preoedipal (pregenital) phase in female development.     

Integrating male and female elements in a woman's gender identity.

Despite advances in female developmental theory since the 1970s, there remains a lingering tendency to stereotype and polarize gender identity. The key to this puzzle may be found in the legacy of early libido theory, which offers an unintegratable solution for women. This is because in order for a woman to claim femininity according to this early theory, her masculine trends in development must be repudiated and "overcome." A contemporary theory based on primary femininity suggests that this early theoretical "either/or" dilemma puts forward a developmentally immature solution. The analysis of a thirty-year-old woman, and a commentary contrasting "old" and "newer" ways of thinking on the part of the analyst, demonstrate that an interweaving pattern of paternal identifications and male body representations, together with the female body image and female identifications, is necessary to create a mature gender identity portrait. The female body representation and maternal identifications may indeed be enhanced by male internalizations, as happened in this particular instance.     

Domestic violence and woman's reproductive health: a review of the literature

This paper outlines the current literature on the effect of violence on women's reproductive health. Domestic violence is considered worldwide to be a social health problem which particularly affects women. It is generally categorized in five groups as physical, sexual, verbal, economic, and emotional violence. Domestic violence against women also includes sterilization and abortion by force, forcing women to use contraceptives against their will, or withholding contraceptives from those who wish to use them, genital mutilation, killing female children, and choosing gender in the prenatal period. A woman infected with a sexually transmitted disease by her partner or husband, and having a partner or husband having sexual intercourse with another woman also falls within the sexual violence parameters. Domestic violence has significant effects on both the general and reproductive health of the women, and may cause serious complications and may end with death. The studies show that women exposed to violence have worse health conditions and benefit less from health services than others. Therefore, health care personnel have important responsibilities to define domestic violence and intervene when necessary. These personnel must also be educated in matters of domestic violence, effective policy and protocols must be put in place. And, very importantly, health personnel must be supported by their managers when they try to deal with matters relating to domestic violence.     

Four seasons in femininity orfour men in a woman's life

Conclusion The feminine complaint that Alex's passion echoes, raising it to a level rarely attained, is not limited to the pursuit of sexualjouissance. Nor can it be reduced to an aversion on the part of women to a morality of the signifier, as maintained by a certain reading of Freud. Very precisely, the persistent note in feminine restlessness is a certain relationship of the subject to the insufficiency of the signifier, which the quest for love registers. The fact that language lacks the very quality that would make it credible and that would guarantee that discourse corresponds to what desire attests to is what delivers femininity over to the unnameable. In love she requires from the other member of the social bond the signifier that is lacking within the structure of femininity and that causes the call tojouissance in her body that drives her to distraction. Thus, the structure at stake in femininity, to which Alex's hysterical passion bears witness, defines in writing, that is, by a mark left on the body, the limitation of the reality of ajouissance which persists beyond the signifier and the object of the fantasy. When the analyst's desire offers support to this quest for a limit tojouissance on the part of a subject, it is in desire that the reality of sex and the other is linked to the signifier that would testify to the truth of the amorous discourse in the unconscious. Thus from one man to another, from the love of the father to the loss of a son, including the desire of the lover and the law of the husband, a woman finds herself supporting, with the letter of her body, the signifier which in its words testifies tojouissance as a place to lose oneself.     

A woman's struggle in academic psychology (1936-2001)

Tracy S. Kendler's strong desire to get a college education had to overcome economic hardships of the Great Depression and a mother's conviction that finding a suitable husband was more important. Solomon Asch at Brooklyn College, by scholarly example, encouraged her to seek a career in psychology. At the University of Iowa she studied with both Kurt Lewin and Kenneth Spence and finally opted to conduct a research program, ultimately on cognitive development, within a neobehavioristic methodological orientation. Being married to academic psychologist Howard H. Kendler, and a mother of 2 sons, created problems in fashioning an independent academic career, but persistence and research productivity, sometimes a result of collaborative efforts with her husband, finally led to a distinguished career.     

Grey is a place

Reprinted from the Harvard Library Bulletin, Volume X, Number I (Winter 1936) by permission. © 1956 The President and Fellows of Harvard College.