Sacred Psychoanalysis - etheses Repository - University of ...

penis envy, as well as the nature and development of femininity, themes she continued to
develop throughout her life. Suttie writing in 1935 and pre-dating later object relations and
attachment theorists, believed dismissal of the maternal and denial of relationship-seeking
led to a distorted understanding of both personhood and religion (Suttie 1935, 1988). 259 In
part, this also accounts for the limited impact of psychoanalysis in non-European cultures
where existing religious traditions emphasize the maternal, such as Hinduism (Kakar 1978,
1991, 2005, 2006). 260 Feminist engagement with psychoanalysis has its recent origins in the
re-discovery of Horney, 261 and through Juliet Mitchell (Mitchell 1974) at a time when Freud
received a highly critical reception in feminist thought. Mitchell placed Freud within a
context, suggesting that feminists need to understand Freud in order to understand
patriarchy. She saw psychoanalysis offering ongoing insight, if suitably contextualized and
re-interpreted once the influence of a dominant patriarchy has been identified. 262
Chodorow adopted a different theoretical perspective drawn from object relations, utilizing
concepts from Horney, Klein, Fairbairn, Guntrip and Winnicott, and focused on the
emergence of self (Chodorow 1978). 263 The pre-Oedipal relationship with the mother plays
the central role in this: Chodorow emphasized the importance of the mother (Benjamin
1982), and Benjamin the importance of the father (Benjamin 1988). As each person
becomes a ‘“self in relation” (or denial of relation) … this view radically breaks with an
259
Mitchell quotes Greer who found support from Suttie for her critique of Freud (Mitchell 1974). Wright
acknowledges Suttie’s importance for re-stating the maternal (Wright 2006).
260
For a more detailed discussion of Hinduism, see chapter thirteen.
261
‘Horney’s early essays were largely ignored until they were published in Feminine Psychology in 1967.
Since then there has been a growing recognition that Karen Horney was the first great psychoanalytic feminist’
(Paris 2005: 759). See also Sayers’s work on other influential psychoanalytic women (Sayers 1991).
262
For example, drawing on Lacanian insights, Mitchell challenged the central role castration played in
Freud’s understanding of sexual difference.
263
Chodorow was, she believes, one of the first American analysts to make object relations a central aspect of
her theory, dating from 1974 (Chodorow 2004, 2005).
115