Female Passion and the Matrix of Mother,Daughter, and Body: Vicissitudes of the Maternal Transference in the Working Through of Sexual Inhibitions

The maternal object is rarely seen as a girl's source of identification as a vibrant, sexually desirous woman. In this paper, I propose that the mother's capacity both to convey her own pride and pleasure in her female body, its sexual and procreative capacities, and to confer the privilege of passion on her daughter is requisite for a girl's full, pleasurable possession of her body and sexuality. Using observations from two analyses, I explore ways in which transformations of the negative transference manifestations of thwarted maternal sexuality and its pernicious expressions within the mother–daughter relationship paralleled recovery of a fuller capacity for sexual pleasure and agency. To offer clinical pathways toward development of female analysands' capacities for feminine pride and sexual passion, theories must allow for adaptive resolution of oedipal-period conflicts—resolution that can lead to a mature mutuality between mother and daughter.     

The Primary Maternal Oedipal Situation and Female Homoerotic Desire

In this paper, I closely examine classical psychoanalytic theory on the female oedipal complex in order to shed light on same-sex object choice. Given that the mother is the first love object for the girl as well as for the boy, the girl's object relational constellation centrally involves the experience of homoeroticism as well as heteroeroticism. Yet, it remains a question as to whether a mother can see her daughter as a sexual subject; can mother–daughter homoerotic desire be experienced and validated by the mother? That a girl desires her mother is generally not seen or registered by the mother; it remains an unrecognized desire.

I suggest that the obscuring of female desire has to do centrally with the fate of eroticism in the early mother–daughter relationship. I propose relabeling the “negative oedipal complex” in girls as “the primary maternal oedipal situation.” Issues involving invisibility or stigmatization of one's erotic desire likely pose a significant challenge to the self–esteem of many lesbians. It is important in clinical work with lesbian patients to be open to a complex interweaving of developmental experiences, varying with each individual, some of which may have been damaging to, and others strengthening of, female sexuality.     

OEDIPUS REX: WHERE ARE WE GOING,ESPECIALLY WITH FEMALES?

The Oedipus myth usefully informs triangulated object relations, though males, females, and “humankind” can become overly interchangeable. Freud's intentions to enlighten sexed gender are nowadays obscured. In 1931, he rejected Oedipus for females. Counterreactive gender blindness forecloses exploration about female development. Loewald's (1979) view of Oedipus Rex emancipates male heterosexuals from a recurring (universal), regressive pull back to mother. Ogden (1987) offers further insights into earliest female development. The author suggests a lifelong, progressive trajectory of mother/daughter closeness, in synch with a girl's shared slow body development into maturity and childbearing. Freeing the female dyad from obligatory pathological interpretation may inspire fresh sex and gender clinical theory.     

The Black Man and the Mermaid: Desire and Disruption in the Analytic Relationship

This paper considers the impact of desexualization of the maternal on the development of female sexuality. A “chance encounter” revealing a desire in the female analyst, previously unsuspected, disrupts a female patient's prior sense of homoerotic immersion with the analyst. I argue that a girl's would-be oedipal competition is encased within a patriarchal structuring of sexuality where the mother is rendered solely reproductive and preoedipal, not erotically sexual. I examine the meanings for a patient of internalizing a female figure, her analyst, who is viewed as both maternal and sexual. I suggest that a female sense of genital inadequacy and inferiority may have a component of not being able to link the mother's (and in the transference, the analyst's) use of her genitals with her use of her mind/maternal function. I unfold a thesis regarding maternal desexualization that I believe, given mother–infant symbiosis, has rather extensive applicability, and that can lead to viewing any third party as a “dark” interloper.     

Mothers and Daughters from Today's Psychoanalytic Perspective

In this paper, I review and synthesize findings that may help us remodel the way we think about the vicissitudes of the mother-daughter relationship. Although exciting new ideas are burgeoning in the literature, there seems to be a lag between discoveries and their integration into clinical practice. Older theories emphasizing separation and the girl's “change of libidinal object” from mother to father reflect linear models that do not encompass the development we observe and experience. Newer theories depict development as interactive and relational throughout the life cycle—leading not to separation but to autonomy with connectedness. Applying male models to the female superego or speaking of the “female Oedipus complex” is misleading. New myths are being proposed to describe the conflicts integral to the girl's triangular situation. Applying the myth of Persephone and Demeter has been especially instructive. Many analysts tend to pathologize or infantilize the woman's ongoing tie to her mother and tend to misunderstand the intense ambivalence between daughter and mother. Once we recognize that the course of development is not linear, we should expect to see the woman revisiting, reexamining, and resynthesizing representations of self-versus-mother and self-with-mother over her lifetime.     

Sexual Preference,Gender, and Blame Attributions in Adolescent Sexual Assault

ABSTRACT

The study investigated the impact of victim sexual orientation, perpetrator gender, and participant gender on judgements toward a 15-year-old male victim of a depicted sexual assault. One hundred and eight-eight participants (97 male, 91 female) read a hypothetical scenario depicting the sexual assault of a 15-year-old male victim where the victim's sexual orientation and the perpetrator's gender were varied between subjects. Participants then completed a questionnaire assessing their attributions toward both the victim and the perpetrator. Results revealed that male participants blamed the victim more than female participants when the victim was both gay and attacked by a male perpetrator. All participants, regardless of gender, made more positive judgements toward the female as opposed to male perpetrator. Results are discussed in relation to gender role stereotypes and homophobia.     

Peer acceptance among Chinese adolescents: The role of emotional empathy,cognitive empathy and gender

Previous studies have found mixed results on the relationship between empathy and peer acceptance. Emotional and cognitive components of empathy were hypothesised to play different roles in peer acceptance, and the relationship between empathy and peer acceptance differed across genders. In this study, 375 Chinese adolescents completed self‐report measures of emotional and cognitive empathy. They also provided peer nominations that allowed for the determination of social preference and social impact scores. The results showed that a boy's cognitive empathy positively correlated with the extent to which he was liked by his male classmates, whereas a girl's cognitive empathy positively correlated with her social impact among her female classmates. This study suggests that empathy does not affect peer acceptance among adolescents uniformly; instead, gender plays a determinative role in the dialectics between social acceptance and empathy.     

MIND AND ITS TREATMENT

On the basis of mother-baby observations and analytic experience, it is argued that a trauma during infancy leads to a psychic functioning where the early defensive manoeuvres of non-integration described by Eugenio Gaddini cannot be given up in fear of a repetition of the catastrophe, already experienced once in early infancy, of losing the self. This state of non-integration can be seen in a traumatized girl's missing feminine symbolizations as well as in her false self. A girl is described who had to stick to a transitional object, which seems to represent concretization, an inablity to symbolize, instead of being able to use a transitional phenomenon supporting healthy development. A case of a hysteric woman illustrates the state of non-integration due to an evident early trauma. For women, as in this case, the female inner-genitality has to be filled with pregenital drive-contents. The binding functions as well as the symbolization function are paralysed due to integration-anxiety. In analysing the resistance of my patient, I have found an active use of imitation for the purpose of self-defense within the transference against receiving the analyst's understanding, empathy or interpretations. This state of non-integration, possibly typical of hysteria, is what Gaddini calls imitative identity.     

THE RAPE OF MEDUSA IN THE TEMPLE OF ATHENA: ASPECTS OF TRIANGULATION IN THE GIRL2

The relationship between the Greek goddess Athena and her father Zeus, together with the competitive hostility she displays towards other females, is presented as illustrating some previously neglected aspects of triangular developmental conflicts in the little girl. Literature on ‘the Oedipus complex in the female’ is reviewed and discussed. The mythological early histories of both Athena and the female monster Medusa are examined for the light they can shed on female developmental vicissitudes and resultant conflicts in both women and men. Unconscious split representations of women as assertive, phallic and dangerous, or alternatively passive, castrated and receptive result in defensive repudiation of the idea that a woman can be both actively assertive and also feminine and sexual. Athena's enraged action of transforming the beautiful young maiden Medusa into a monster as punishment for the ‘crime’ of having been raped in her temple is discussed as illustrating an outcome of the lack of resolution of the little girl's early triangular conflicts.     

The Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy of Dissociative Identity Disorder in the Context of Trauma Therapy

Homosexuality is most probably variable in its pathway of origin. Reports of instances of when it has been possible to follow its development from childhood into adulthood are lacking in the literature. In this paper, the author describes his experience of treating two nine-year-old girls who had had serious problems in their relationships with their parents and who developed lesbian relationships when they became adults. In each instance, there were extremely traumatic experiences with the girl's father and failure of the mother to intercede on the girl's behalf. One patient was treated up into adolescence, with a follow-up later on, and the other was treated well into adulthood. Psychological factors that seem to have contributed to the eventual development of a lesbian sexual orientation are discussed in this paper.     

Nurturing the Spiritual in Children's Sexual Development

Drawing on data from a small-scale study into the developing sexual values and attitudes of 35 nine and ten year-old children, this article examines evidence for and against the existence of a spiritual dimension to the sexual understanding of preadolescent children. The study identifies interesting connections between spiritual and sexual development, highlights significant gender differences and draws attention to the central role of adults as guides to children's developing values. The findings are thus rich in implications for both policy and practice in sex education.     

A PSYCHOANALYTIC READING OF PETER HØEG'S NOVEL MISS SMILLA'S FEELING FOR SNOW3

The author presents a psychoanalytic reading of the Danish author Peter Høeg's masterpiece ‘Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow’, focusing on the special linguistic style of the novel. Further, the author puts forward an interpretation of the heroine, seeing her as a literary example of female bisexuality. Investigating the heroine's fate, the author discusses Miss Smilla's phallic defence and identity. The narrative technique in Høeg's novel is analysed through Lacan's concepts of the Real, the Imaginary and the Symbolic. The main figure is interpreted as an imaginary example of female bisexuality. Miss Smilla has neither an unambiguous gender identity nor ethnicity. The heroine is pictured in a conflict between two cultures: the Greenlandish and the western European, and her bisexuality both reflects this and is part of it. The author proposes to interpret a significant memory from Smilla's early childhood as an example of a castration phantasy, which retroactively gives new significance to the little girl's pre‐oedipal frustration.     

Male gender identity: early developmental roots

The purpose of this paper has been to bring together a wide variety of ideas about male gender and sexual development into a broader and updated view. Toward that end, I have suggested that we view the concept of gender identity along three intertwining strands; core gender identity, gender role identity, and choice of love object. I have also suggested some important contributions made to each of these strands at various phases of development. I have concentrated upon the early childhood roots of gender identity, particularly as the earliest years are the time when important internal structures are established and consolidated. Later manifestations, although not the same as the early ones, have their roots in the early childhood configurations. However, the contributions to an overall broad sense of gender identity made during the latency and adolescent years must not be overlooked. The final outcome of any position along any of the strands is not finally consolidated until the end of adolescence. Indeed, adult experiences may also make important contributions.     

Improbable Possibilities

Whether or not a woman can “choose” her sexuality has been subject to debate because it contests essentialist notions of sexuality as fixed and determined early in life. This article explores the variabilities among women in sexual object choice and expression and elaborates on the claim that women's sexuality is fluid. It does so by presenting a summary of interviews with women of all sexual orientations who do, in fact, experience their sexuality as a conscious choice. Their own words reveal the plasticity of sexual attractions, experiences, and identities and the more fluid sexuality that emerges as a result. The article also highlights the importance of considering cultural and historical context—specifically the contemporary feminist movement—as it affects the range of possibilities in women's construction of their sexual desire and identity.     

The Intersection of Gender and Sexuality: Sexism Shapes Men’s Same-Sex Sexuality in Terms of Self-Label Identification and Partner Choice in China

We examined how sexism related to gay and bisexual men’s preferences for same-sex top (dominant) or bottom (submissive) sexuality in China. Specifically, we determined the impacts of sexism on sexual self-label identification and requirements for a romantic partner’s sexual role among 507 Chinese gay and bisexual men. Sexism was found to significantly predict top/bottom sexual self-label: gay and bisexual men endorsing benevolent sexism (BS; ideation of women who conform to traditional gender roles) were more likely to identify as tops than as bottoms. We also noted a significant prediction of hostile sexism (HS; hostility toward women who oppose traditional roles) on partner choice: Tops and bottoms endorsing HS were more likely to require a complementary partner rather than to have no requirements. Moreover, sexism was related to sexual role prejudice, a concept derived from sexism that we defined as holding attitudes toward the gender roles of “bottoms” among gay and bisexual men that indicate inequality of sexual self-labels. In a mediation analysis of these relationships, we noted significant indirect effects of BS and HS on sexual self-label via both benevolent and hostile sexual role prejudice, as well as on requirements for a romantic partner’s sexual role via benevolent (but not hostile) sexual role prejudice. Our results suggest that traditional gender beliefs may influence negative beliefs toward other sexual roles and that both sets of beliefs, although not always consistent with each other, relate to gay and bisexual men’s sexual self-labels and requirements for a romantic partner’s sexual role.     

On the motivation of quid pro quo sexual harassment in men: relation to masculine gender role stress

Male office workers reported levels of distress elicited by personal violations of a range of masculine gender role expectations, as well as their proclivities to coerce sexual favors from “attractive” subordinate women via bribery or extortion. Sexual harassment proclivity levels were directly correlated with levels of distress related to four dimensions of masculine gender role violations, including acts of subordination to women, public expression of emotional behavior, inadequate heterosexual prowess, and inferiority in athletic and intellectual domains. These findings accord with an interpretation that men's quid pro quo sexual harassment may be motivated by the social punishment of their own failures to conform to masculine gender role expectations, including, but importantly, not limited to the expectation that men should punish women's violations of feminine gender role norms.     

Classifying a Person as a Sexual Partner: The Impact of Contextual Factors

This study assessed the influence of five factors on respondents' judgments of whether two hypothetical actors, Tom and Lucy, would consider each other to be "sexual partners." The factors were: respondent's gender, actor's gender, type of act (vaginal, anal, or oral intercourse), frequency of act (once, several times), and actors' dating status (not dating, dated once, dated for three months). 223 undergraduates (mean age 22.2 - 2.2 years; 65% female) read 16 hypothetical heterosexual behavior scenarios featuring Tom and Lucy and judged whether Tom (Lucy) would consider Lucy (Tom) to be a "sexual partner." Respondents thought the actors would be more likely to consider each other sexual partners if they had engaged in vaginal or anal intercourse as opposed to oral sex; if they had more frequent sex; or if they were in a steady dating relationship. Researchers and health care professionals should take contextual/situational factors into account when they ask respondents about their sexual partners.     

DISTINGUISHED SCHOLAR ARTICLE Rethinking women's sexual orientation: An interdisciplinary,relationship‐focused approach

What leads some women to form romantic and sexual relationships with men, and other women to form intimate relationships with women? This article presents a new conceptual paradigm for understanding women's sexual orientation that is emerging from research in such diverse fields as social psychology, sex research, evolutionary psychology, attachment theory, and neuroscience. This approach acknowledges the potential plasticity of women's sexuality and the emphasis that women place on close relationships as a context for sexuality. Research also raises the possibility that for women the biological determinants of sexual desire, attraction, and attachment are not inherently linked to a partner's gender. This article begins with a brief survey of research on women's same‐sex romantic and sexual relationships not only in the United States today but also in other cultures and historical periods. These and other findings are used to critique prevailing conceptual models of women's sexual orientation. Finally, key elements in an alternative paradigm are described.     

女为悦己者容:择偶动机对女性身体(自我)客体化的影响

以往研究大多从社会文化的角度解释对女性身体的客体化。本研究提出,两性对女性身体的客体化以及女性的自我客体化可能是对性选择的一种适应机制。通过启动择偶动机,本研究发现,性选择情境会引发两性对于女性(而非男性)身体的客体化和自我客体化,将女性身体知觉为“物”而非“人”,更看重其身体的外形吸引力而非能力。研究揭示了择偶动机影响女性身体客体化的心理机制,为性选择对女性身体客体化的进化塑造作用提供了初步实证支持。     

The development of the drive object concept in Freud's work: 1905-1915

In 1905 Freud established the idea of an object of an instinctual drive as the basic object concept of psychoanalysis. He also introduced the derivative concepts of object directedness, object choice, and object finding. While taking these steps he simultaneously deemphasized the importance of drive objects in sexual life, contradicted himself on whether drives are autoerotic or object-directed in infancy, and made incompatible statements about whether or not object choice occurs before puberty. Freud's clinical work, reflected especially in the major case reports and a series of papers on fantasy, led to an apparent recognition of complexity in the mental life of children far greater than had been described earlier. The increased attention to and appreciation of mental content in childhood especially augmented Freud's understanding of the role of drive objects, object directedness, and object choice in infancy. This, in turn, led him to postulate a sequence of organizations of sexual life, named according to the zonal drive source plus the mode of object directedness, a process of theory development that continued through 1924. Object choice and, to a lesser extent, object directedness are concepts derived from and dependent upon the concept of drive object. Both require, however, explanatory constructs besides drive constructs. In 1915 Freud defined the term "object" in the context of stating his drive theory. Freud used the term object with several new modifying words during this decade. No new object concept was introduced, however, in this work, although some steps in that direction appeared to be in progress.