The Rape of Medusa - Beth J. Seelig, MD

Freud found the subject of female psychology puzzling. He stated, ‘in general
our insight into these developmental processes is unsatisfactory, incomplete and
vague’. (1924, p. 179). In his famous exasperated plea to Princess Marie
Bonaparte, he asked, ‘What does a woman want?’ (quoted in Jones, 1953, p. 421).
Richards (1999) has reminded us that he listened to and respected his female
colleagues and was a strong advocate of equality for women. However, as Fliegel
(1973) described, when he felt that his cherished psychoanalytic theories were
under direct attack by his erstwhile followers Jones (1927) and Horney (1926,
1933), particularly in the area of female psychosexual development, he defended
his formulations vigorously, even going so far as to categorically deny the
existence of vaginal sensations in the little girl (Freud, 1933, p. 118), recognised
by Klein (1932).
Considering it inevitable for a young girl to feel castrated when she learned
about the genital difference between males and females, Freud regarded penis
envy as the psychological bedrock of the female. This theory, in combination with
his ideas about the relative weakness of the female superego (Freud, 1925, 1931,
1933), led to the unfortunate consequence that Freud's theories were globally
denounced and subsequently disregarded by many feminist authors.
In his recent paper on female subjectivity Hoffman attributes the root of
Freud's problem in understanding women to the fact that ‘Freud's philosophic and
intellectual roots include the assumption that subjectivity is to be considered
possible only for men’ (1996, p. 24). As Dimen stated, ‘Freud's anatomical map of
a brave new sexual world plots a passage that begins as though generic to Homo
sapiens but ends in masculinity: in a failure of nerve, it inscribes things female on
a “dark continent”’ (1997, p. 528).
Orgel wrote about Freud's conviction that all males must repudiate the
feminine. Unable to accept his own feminine and maternal identifications,
he would not gaze upon his mother in her coffin. He sent Anna to his
mother's funeral. Anna, his female self, his Athena-Antigone, would be
his eyes. She could bear to look and take his mother in—for him, as him
(Orgel, 1996, p. 46).
Freud's difficulties with femininity and female sexuality formed a strong
precedent for generations of subsequent psychoanalysts. His formulations about
women seemed to be clinically confirmed in the analyses of many women. It was
difficult to get beyond the idea of ‘bedrock’ for many who respected his authority
and may have suffered from similar unexamined areas of countertransference
blindness in the area of female psychosexual development. Gradually, however,
alternative formulations have gained recognition and female development is
recognised as separate and quite distinct from male development, rather than being
regarded as a variant on the male norm.