ABSTRACT
In The Gender Conundrum Dana Birksted-Breen brings together for the first time key psychoanalytic papers on the subject of femininity and masculinity from the very different British, French, and American perspectives.
The papers are gathered around the central issue of the interplay of body and psyche in psychoanalysis. The editor sees the positive use of this given tension and duality as the key to real understanding of the questions currently surrounding gender identity. As well as addressing the outspoken controversy over the understanding of femininity, she shows that there has been a more silent revolution in the understanding of masculinity.
Offering an international perspective, this collection of seminal papers with introductions of exemplary clarity fills a considerable gap in the literature, providing a classic text for psychoanalysis and gender studies.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
chapter |40 pages
General introduction
part |2 pages
PART ONE The Oedipus complex
chapter |6 pages
Introduction
chapter |19 pages
Son and father
chapter |15 pages
The female Oedipus complex and the relationship to the body
chapter |14 pages
The missing link: parental sexuality in the Oedipus complex
part |2 pages
PART TWO The phallic question
chapter |8 pages
Introduction
chapter |5 pages
Concepts of vaginal orgasm
chapter |15 pages
The phallic shadow
chapter |21 pages
Inquiry into femininity
part |2 pages
PART THREE The representation of the body
chapter |4 pages
Introduction
chapter |24 pages
Female genital anxieties, conflicts and typical mastery modes
chapter |17 pages
‘The weak spot’—some observations on male sexuality
part |2 pages
PART FOUR Bisexuality