Gender and Psychoanalytic Treatment

This collection of essays explores the signifiance of gender in psychoanalytic theory and practice. Margaret Foester presents a critique and revision of Freud's formulations on women in light of object relations theory. Developmental perspectives are offered by Elaine V. Siegel, who explicates the struggle for gender differentiation in two boys, and by Anni Bergman, who delineates the impact of a mother's core gender conflicts on her daughter's personality development. The role of the analyst's gender is discussed by Dale H. Ontmeyer in terms of idealization striving and by Suzanne B. Phillips in work with homosexual patients. Judith T. Davis examines women's strivings for intimacy as they attain separation-individuation and autonomy. Morton Kissen updates Freud's "whore-madonna" formulation from an object relations viewpoint, applies it to women's problems with intimacy and commitment, and presents a structural perspective on gender and superego development.