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The third step: Freud, the feminists, and postmodernism

The third step: Freud, the feminists, and postmodernism The American Journal of Psychoanalysis, Vol. 55, No. 4, 1995 THE THIRD STEP: FREUD, THE FEMINISTS, AND POSTMODERNISM Muriel Dimen INTRODUCTION: THE FIRST TWO STEPS If psychoanalysis is at once a body of knowledge, a theory of human nature, and a method of cure, as Sigmund Freud once said, then the way we think about people and the way we help them are mutually implicated. One of the implications of the feminist critique is that we do not always think about people, women and men, in the most helpful way. Despite the best intentions, our thinking often re-creates the problems we set out to solve in the first place. In fact, I will argue that the reinstallation of gender stereotype is a major problem in one branch of psychoanalytic feminism, and it impels what I am calling the Third Step. The need to consider how we think about women and men is not, on the surface, self-evident. After all, it would seem pretty clear that, in the ordi- nary course of events, women, for example, are women, mostly we know one when we see one, and we have a general idea of the difficulties they confront. We would just http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png The American Journal of Psychoanalysis Springer Journals

The third step: Freud, the feminists, and postmodernism

Dimen, Muriel
The American Journal of Psychoanalysis , Volume 55 (4): 17 – Dec 1, 1995
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Publisher
Springer Journals
Copyright
1995 Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis
ISSN
0002-9548
eISSN
1573-6741
DOI
10.1007/BF02741980
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Abstract

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis, Vol. 55, No. 4, 1995 THE THIRD STEP: FREUD, THE FEMINISTS, AND POSTMODERNISM Muriel Dimen INTRODUCTION: THE FIRST TWO STEPS If psychoanalysis is at once a body of knowledge, a theory of human nature, and a method of cure, as Sigmund Freud once said, then the way we think about people and the way we help them are mutually implicated. One of the implications of the feminist critique is that we do not always think about people, women and men, in the most helpful way. Despite the best intentions, our thinking often re-creates the problems we set out to solve in the first place. In fact, I will argue that the reinstallation of gender stereotype is a major problem in one branch of psychoanalytic feminism, and it impels what I am calling the Third Step. The need to consider how we think about women and men is not, on the surface, self-evident. After all, it would seem pretty clear that, in the ordi- nary course of events, women, for example, are women, mostly we know one when we see one, and we have a general idea of the difficulties they confront. We would just

Journal

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis – Springer Journals

Published: Dec 1, 1995

Keywords: Clinical Psychology; Psychotherapy; Psychoanalysis

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