Summary

This collection contains Freud's most significant statements on women, taken form letters as well as published work, presenting a clear, accessible view of the progress of his though and his own struggle for understanding and coherence. Elisabeth Young-Bruehl untangles the arguments, relating Freud's ideas on women, and on bi-sexuality to his clinical practice and broader theory, while the annotated bibliography traces the later disputes.FREUD ON GIRLS- 'They go through an early age in which they envy their brothers their signs of masculinity and feel at a disadvantage and humiliated because of the lack of it...'FREUD ON WOMEN- 'At one time (in a matriarchal society) the woman may have bee the dominant partner. In this way, like the defeated deities, she acquires demonic properties...'AND ON HIMSELF- 'My mother was nowhere to be found' I was crying in despair. My brother Philip...unlocked a wardrobe for me, and when I did not find my mother within it either, I cried even more until, slender and beautiful, she came through the door. What can this mean?'