Desire and the female analyst

The literature on erotic transference and countertransference between female analyst and male patient is reviewed and discussed. It is known that female analysts are less likely than their male colleagues to act out sexually with their patients. It has been claimed that a) male patients do not experience sustained erotic transferences, and b) female analysts do not experience erotic countertransferences with female or male patients. These views are challenged and it is argued that, if there is less sexual acting out by female analysts, it is not because of an absence of eros in the therapeutic relationship. The literature review covers material drawn from psychoanalysis, feminist psychotherapy, Jungian analysis, as well as some sociological and cultural sources. It is organized under the following headings: the gender of the analyst, sexual acting out, erotic transference, maternal and paternal transference, gender and power, counter-transference, incest taboo - mothers and sons and sexual themes in the transference.     

the counterproductivity of incarcerating female street prostitutes

In depth interviews with incarcerated female street prostitutes provide evidence that ''get tough'' policies are often counter?productive. For example, arresting prostitutes increases the level of violence both against these women and by them. Rehabilitation programs based on the lives and experiences of street prostitutes that will provide a path into legal employment need to be developed.     

Hysterical personality and sexuality of the female

The investigation involved 30 hysterical women, who were interviewed and who completed four questionnaires relating to: psychosexual development; attitude towards sexuality; sexual activity; and reactivity. Dysharmonic sexual development, and low levels of activity and reactivity in their sexual life was revealed. Contrasted with other groupings of female psychiatric patients, from a sexual point of view the female hysterical personality presents a special psychological case.     

试谈道教的女性观

道教奉老子为教祖,将道家理论与鬼神巫术、神仙方术结合在一起,形成一套独特的宗教神学体系。儒家和道家分别是父权制和母权制在文化观念上的不同反映,儒家尚刚知雄崇阳,道家贵柔守雌主阴。道教以“阴阳平衡”、“贵柔守雌”的原则为指导,特别反对残害妇女。《太平经》说:“今天下失道以来,多贱女子,而反贼杀之,令使女子少于男,故使阴气绝,不与天地法相应。天道法,孤阳无双,至枯,令天不时雨。女者应地,独见贱,天下共贱其真母,共贼害杀地气,令使地气绝也不生,地大怒不悦,灾害益多,使王治不得平。”①在道教里,女者应地,女性象征大地,对女性的…     

The female psychoanalyst in the movies

The last five decades of the American cinema have produced a remarkably consistent stereotype of the female analyst. In films such as Spellbound (1945), Knock on Wood (1954), Sex and the Single Girl (1964), They Might be Giants (1971), and The Man Who Loved Women (1983), women analysts are swept away by countertransference love that leads them to become sexually or romantically involved with their male patients. In stark contrast to the data from studies of patient-therapist sexual involvement, there are more than twice as many films portraying unethical sexual behavior on the part of a female analyst as there are films depicting similar countertransference acting out by a male analyst. Moreover, a stable relationship with a man and a successful analytic practice never coexist for any woman analyst in the cinema. Neither does a female analyst ever successfully treat a male patient in the American cinema unless she falls in love with him. On the contrary, the male patient is more likely to cure his female analyst. Clinical reports from cross-gender analyses are useful in understanding these cinematic myths.     

Multidimensionality of the content of female sexual fantasy

A Female Sexual Fantasy Questionnaire (FSFQ) was developed from factor analysis of ratings through which women indicated the erotic potency of fantasies depicting nominated sexual activities. Five dimensions of sexual fantasy (genital, sensual, sexual power, sexual suffering, forbidden sexual-activity themes) are assessed by FSFQ. The extent to which themes within FSFQ were rated as sexually arousing correlated with the levels of physiological response recorded by vaginal photoplethysmography while women engaged in fantasy employing these themes. Sexual fantasy as assessed by the FSFQ correlated only moderately with scores on measures of non-sexual cognition such as the Imaginal Processes Inventory and the Betts Questionnaire Upon Mental Imagery, and women with high and low scores on FSFQ were not readily differentiated by biographic and demographic variables. Contexts in which the FSFQ can be used are discussed.     

Embodied female experience through the lens of imagination

Abstract: In 1971, I made a film entitled Self Portrait of a Nude Model Turned Cinematographer in which I explore the objectifying ‘male’ gaze on my body in contrast to the subjective lived experience of my body. The film was a radical challenge to the gaze that objectifies woman – and thus imprisons her – which had hitherto dominated narrative cinema. Since the objectification of women has largely excluded us from the privileged phallogocentric discourses, in this paper I hope to bring into the psychoanalytic dialogue a woman's lived experience. I will approach this by exploring how remembering this film has become a personally transformative experience as I look back on it through the lens of postmodern and feminist discourses that have emerged since it was made. In addition, I will explore how this process of imaginatively looking back on an artistic creation to generate new discourses in the present is similar to the transformative process of analysis. Lastly, I will present a clinical example, where my embodied countertransference response to a patient's subjection to the objectifying male gaze opens space for a new discourse about her body to emerge.     

The paradox of the contented female business owner

According to survey responses from 201 business owners, although the firms of male business owners were more successful than those of female business owners on frequently used measures of business success (business performance compared to competitors and sales), business owner sex did not predict satisfaction with business success, supporting the existence of a “paradox of the contented female business owner”. A differential values explanation for this paradox was strongly supported, whereas a differential inputs explanation was unsupported. Female business owners placed less value on achieving business success than their male counterparts. Also, female business owners’ satisfaction with business success was less related to fluctuations in business performance and sales than that of male business owners. However, results for male business owners displayed a different kind of paradox, as their satisfaction with business success was positively related to business performance and negatively related to sales.     

道教与"女仙降临"故事

这篇文章从原始崇拜中的“女神”到“女仙”的转化和“冥婚”特征来研究“女仙降临”故事的产生及其与道教的关系。