Psychoanalytic Reflections on a Gender-free Case: Into the Void PDF
Preview Psychoanalytic Reflections on a Gender-free Case: Into the Void
Psychoanalytic Reflections on a Gender-free Case The past two decades of psychoanalytic discourse have witnessed a marked transformation in the way we think about women and gender. The assignment of gender carries with it a host of assumptions, yet without it we can feel lost in a void, unmoored from the world of rationality, stability and meaning. The feminist analytic thinkers whose work is collected here confront the meaning established by the assignment of gender and the uncertainty created by its absence. The contributions brought together in Psychoanalytic Reflections on a Gender-free Case: Into the Void address a cross-section of significant issues that have both chronicled and facilitated the changes of feminist psychoanalysis since the mid-1980s. Difficult issues which have previously been ignored (such as the pregnancy of the therapist or sexual abuse regarded as more than a fantasy) are considered first. The book goes on to address family perspectives as they interact and shape the child's experience of growing up male or female. Other topics covered are the authority of personal agency as influenced by the language and theory of patriarchy, male-centred concepts that consistently define women as inferior, and the concept of gender as being co-constructed within a relationship. Thus the authors explore the notion of gender identity as an ongoing negotiation among multiple gendered selves. The gender-free case presented here will fascinate all psychoanalysts interested in exploring ways of grappling with the elusive nature of gender, as well as those engaged in gender studies. Ellen L. K. Toronto is a founding member and past president of the Michigan Psycho analytic Council, and is in private practice in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Gemma Ainslie practices psychoanalysis and psychotherapy in Austin, Texas, and is Vice- President of the Austin-San Antonio Psychoanalytic Society. Molly Donovan is a psychologist in private practice in Washington, DC, and is on the faculty at both the Georgetown University Medical School and the George Washington University. Maurine Kelly practices psychoanalysis and psychotherapy in Bethesda and Silver Spring, Maryland, and is on the faculties of the Washington School of Psychiatry and the George Washington University. Christine C. Kieffer is a Child/Adolescent and Adult psychoanalyst on the faculty of the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis. Nancy McWilliams teaches for the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psy chology at Rutgers University and for several psychoanalytic institutes. Copyrighted Material "Psychoanalytic Reflections on a Gender-free Case: Into the Void is a most unique book. The reader is provided an experience – reading a case in which the gender of the patient is left out – that forces one to contemplate the constructed nature of gender. The experience of the case then serves as a touchstone in a wide-ranging series of papers that show the state of the art in gender theory from a relational psychoanalytic and postmodern perspective. The book covers the topic in depth and comprehensively – an invaluable combination for the reader." Neil Altman, Associate Clinical Professor, New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy & Psychoanalysis "No social movement or cultural phenomena has had as transformative an impact on psychoanalysis as has feminism and the women's movement. By following a gender-free case through the lens of modernist and postmodern theories, Psychoanalytic Reflections on a Gender-free Case: Into the Void illuminates gender space for practicing clinicians, psychotherapists, students and anyone fascinated by questions of gender, sexuality and personhood." Lewis Aron, Director, New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy & Psychoanalysis "This book brings together a dazzling array of psychoanalytic writing on the matter of gender and the linking of gender to sex, race, body states, history, biology, social construction and politics. The book's integrative expansiveness and its attunement to theoretical and stylistic variations in our field live as testimony to the political and professional and personal ferments of the past three decades. This collection of papers goes so far beyond the usual edited collections, showing how subtle, complex and full of surprises the psychoanalytic study of gender has become." Adrienne Harris, Clinical Adjunct Associate Professor, New York University Copyrighted Material Psychoanalytic Reflections on a Gender-free Case Into the void Edited by Ellen L. K. Toronto, Gemma Ainslie, Molly Donovan, Maurine Kelly, Christine C. Kieffer and Nancy McWilliams ROUTLEDG RTayoloru &t Flerandcisg Gero up E LONDON AND NEW YORK Copyrighted Material First published 2005 by Routledge 27 Church Road, Hove, East Sussex BN3 2FA Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Avenue, New York NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Croup Copyright © 2005 selection and editorial material, Ellen L K. Toronto, Gemma Ainslie, Molly Donovan, Maurine Kelly, Christine C. Kieffer and Nancy McWilliams; individual chapters, the contributors. Typeset in Times by Garfield Morgan, Rhayader, Powys, UK Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books, Bodmin, Cornwall Cover design by Sandra Heath All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. This publication has been produced with paper manufactured to strict environmental standards and with pulp derived from sustainable forests. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Psychoanalytic reflections on a gender-free case : into the void / Ellen Toronto . . . [et al.]. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-58391-789-6 1. Psychoanalysis. 2. Women psychoanalysts. 3. Women and psychoanalysis. 4. Psychotherapist and patient. 5. Feminist therapy. 6. Gender identity—Psychological aspects. I. Toronto, Ellen. RC501.P794 2005 616.89'17'0082–dc22 2005006411 ISBN 1-58391-789-6 Copyrighted Material The publication of this volume celebrates the twentieth anniversary of the founding of Section III, Women, Gender and Psychoanalysis, of the Division of Psychoanalysis (39) of the American Psychological Association. It is dedicated to the founding members including: Bernice Barber Toni M. Bernay Carol A. Butler Judith Butt Aphrodite Clamar Barbara L. Claster Carole Dilling Ruth Formanek Susannah Gourevitch Helena W. Harris Rochelle G. K. Kainer Sheila J. Kaplan Cheryl L. Kurash Dale M. Mendell Carole W. Morgan Gerrie Nussdorf Suzanne B. Phillips Conalee Levine Shneidman Harriet Kimble Wrye Copyrighted Material Copyrighted Material Contents Notes on contributors xi Introduction 1 ELLEN L. K. TORONTO PART 1 Gender unbound 9 1 Case presentation 11 ELLEN L. K. TORONTO 2 The feminine unconscious in psychoanalytic theory 22 ELLEN L. K. TORONTO PART II Suspending certainty in the consulting room 47 3 Commentary on Part II 49 MOLLY DONOVAN 4 Childhoods driven wrong 54 JUDITH L. ALPERT 5 An analyst's pregnancy loss and its effects on treatment disruption and growth 75 BARBARA GERSON 6 Working in the space between psychoanalytic and trauma-oriented approaches to stories of abuse 90 JOAN SARNAT Copyrighted Material viii Contents PART III Family relationships: shifting perspectives 111 7 Commentary on Part III 113 NANCY MCWILLIAMS 8 Selfobjects, Oedipal objects and mutual recognition: a self-psychological reappraisal of the female "Oedipal victor" 119 CHRISTINE C. KIEFFER 9 Demeter and Persephone revisited: ambivalence and separation in the mother–daughter relationship 132 MOLLY DONOVAN 10 Boys' envy of mother and the consequences of this narcissistic mortification 143 RUTH F. LAX 11 Mothering and fathering processes in the psychoanalytic art 154 NANCY MCWILLIAMS PART IV Beneath the bedrock: the gender of desire 171 12 Commentary on Part IV 173 GEMMA AINSLIE 13 The female person and how we talk about her 177 POLLY YOUNG-EISENDRATH 14 Woman and desire: why women may not want to want 194 DIANNE ELISE PART V Multiplicity: postmodern revisions of gender 215 15 Commentary on Part V 217 CHRISTINE C. KIEFFER 16 Beyond narcissism: toward a negotiation model of gender identity 227 LYNNE LAYTON Copyrighted Material Contents ix 17 Ironic gender, authentic sex 243 VIRGINIA GOLDNER 18 Gender stereotypes and the change towards greater personal maturity in psychotherapy 256 GWENDOLYN L. GERBER 19 The music of "masculinity": clinical attention to tone and rhythm in gender construction 268 STEVEN H. KNOBLAUCH 20 Race in psychoanalytic space 285 KIMBERLYN LEARY Afterword 298 MURIEL DIMEN Index 307 Copyrighted Material
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