Lecture ON THE Psychoanalytic Theory Perspectives ON Gender Development[ 1186] PDF

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LECTURE ON THE PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY PERSPECTIVES ON GENDER DEVELOPMENT 1)

Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory

The first name that comes to mind in response to psychoanalytic theory is Sigmund Freud. Freud (1924, 1925) was a physician and a psychoanalyst who developed a theory of personality, most notable for its emphasis on the unconscious. Although his emphasis on the effects of the unconscious on behavior is one of the most noteworthy tenets of his theory, his reliance on unconscious processes also makes his theory very difficult to test. Freud articulated a series of psychosexual stages of development, the third of which focused on the development of gender roles. According to Freud, stage 3, the phallic stage, develops between 3 and 6 years of age. It is during this stage of development that boys and girls discover their genitals and become aware that only boys have a penis. This realization leads girls and boys to view girls as inferior. It is also during this time that boys are sexually attracted to their mothers, view their fathers as rivals for their mothers’ affections, and fear castration by their fathers because of their attraction to their mothers. Boys resolve this castration anxiety, and thus the oedipal complex, by repressing their feelings toward their mothers, shifting their identification to their fathers, and perceiving women as inferior. This is the basis for the formation of masculine identity. Girls experience penis envy and thus feel inferior to boys. Girls are sexually attracted to their fathers, jealous of their mothers, and blame their mothers for their lack of a penis . Girls’ eventual awareness that they cannot have their fathers leads to a link between pain and pleasure in women, or masochism. Females handle their conflict, known as the Electra complex, by identifying with their mothers and focusing their energies on making themselves sexually attractive to men. Thus self-esteem in women becomes tied to their physical appearance and sexual attractiveness. According to Freud, the Electra complex is not completely resolved in the same way that the Oedipal complex is resolved partly due to the clearer threat for boys than girls (fear of castration) and partly due to girls having to face a lasting inferior status. According to Freud, how boys and girls resolve all of these issues has implications for their sexuality and future interpersonal relationships. Several difficulties are inherent in this theory of gender-role acquisition. Most important, there is no way for it to be evaluated from a scientific standpoint because the ideas behind it are unconscious. We must be even more cautious in taking this theory seriously when we realize Freud developed it by studying people who sought him out for therapy.

2)

Karen Horney’s Psychoanalytic Theory

Freud had many critics. A notable one was Karen Horney (1926, 1973), a feminist psychoanalyst and physician. Like Freud, she placed a great deal of emphasis on the unconscious and the importance of sexual feelings and childhood experiences in personality development. However, Horney believed social forces rather than biology influenced the development of gender identity. She said girls’ penis envy did not reflect a literal desire for a penis but reflected a desire for men’s power and status in society. She argued that men also experience envy—envy of women’s breasts and ability to bear children. She believed men perceive women as inferior as a way to elevate their own status. In fact, she argued that man’s feelings of inferiority are responsible for men’s need to prove their masculinity through sexual intercourse. 3)

Nancy Chodorow’s Psychoanalytic Theory

A more modern version of psychoanalytic theory, referred to as object-relations theory, was applied to the acquisition of gender roles by Nancy Chodorow (1978) in her book The Reproduction of Mothering. Chodorow’s theory emphasizes the importance of early relationships in establishing gender identity. Like other psychoanalytic theorists, she stresses the importance of sexuality, but she believes the family structure and the child’s early social experiences, rather than unconscious processes, determine sexuality. She believes that the fact that women are the primary caretakers of children is responsible for the development of distinct gender roles. She further postulates that both boys’ and girls’ first primary relationship is with their mothers, a relationship that affects boys’ and girls’ sense of self, future relationships, and attitudes toward women. According to Chodorow (1978), girls acquire their gender identity by connecting with the one person with whom they are already attached: their mother. This explains why females focus on relationships and define themselves through their connection to others. In later years, girls have difficulty finding the same intimate attachment to men. Boys, by contrast, acquire their gender identity by rejecting the one person with whom they have become attached, by separating or individuating themselves from their mothers. Thus males learn to repress relationships and define themselves through separation from others. With whom do boys identify? Because fathers are less of a presence than mothers in children’s lives, fewer models are available to boys; thus boys come to define masculinity as “not being feminine” or not being like their mothers. Whereas girls learn the feminine role by observing their mothers on a day-to-day basis, boys may find themselves identifying with cultural images of masculinity to learn their gender role. Because girls identify with their mothers, their tendency to mother “reproduces” itself. Chodorow (1978) argues that women have a greater desire than men to be parents because they

are more likely to have identified with a parenting role. According to Chodorow, the fact that women are primary caretakers of children in our society it leads directly to the division of labor (i.e., men working outside the home and women working inside the home) and the subsequent devaluation of women in society. The only way these roles can change, according to Chodorow, is for men to become more involved in raising children. Given the decline of the nuclear family and the greater diversity of family structures today, it is possible to test Chodorow’s theory. Do Gender Conduct determine if children have more traditional gender roles when they are raised in a traditional family structure compared to a nontraditional family structure? Like Freud’s theory, Chodorow’s theory also lacks empirical data....