M. Mitscherlich-Nielsen
PSYCHOANALYSIS AND FEMALE
SEXUALITY
It is cl ear tha t Freud 's o bserva ti ons and the conclusions he
drew from them were dependent on the scientific knowl edge of his time
and the judgments and prejudices, the ways o f thinking and seeing of
his society. In rea lity, however, hi s ideas and theories about the
development of woman had less to do with bi ology and physiology
than he was willing to accept. Freud 's "mi sconcepti on of himself as a
scientist" on ce more became ev ident h ere. Onl y to a superfi cial view
does he appear to foll ow the scientifi c ideas of hi s time about physical
energy.
Undoubtedl y he also shared some of the typi call y male prejudices
of
fin-de-siec le
bourgeois society about woman 's na ture and vocation;
nevertheless, in my opini on he made an unprecedented contribution to
her libera ti on from a h ypocritical sexual morality. With the aid of his
method it was poss ibl e for the fir st time to see clearly the motives
behind the selfi sh male idea li za ti on and concurrent infantiliza tion and
degradation of woman. As ea rl y as 1910, in hi s " Contributions to the
Psychology of Love," he was abl e to expl ain plausibl y the unconscious
origins of masculine ambivalence toward women-the tendency to
divide women in to wh ores and saints-by tracing it to the son 's
Oedipal jea lousy. Freud thus succeeded in breaking the prohibition
against thinkin g about sex. This prohibition was one of the most
important factors in crea ting the qualities and intell ectual limitations
that had before seemed inherentl y female, but are actua lly culturally
determined.
The original demands of the femini sts were for professional
equality. Today their demands diverge in many respects from those of
their predecessors in the first half of this century. Equality of opportu–
nity in educa tion and profession , equal pay for men and women , day
nurseries for working mo thers, etc., are still demanded, but these
requirements appea r increas ingly old-fashioned compared with the
far-reachin g decl ara ti ons of wa r that p roclaim a "woman 's revolu–
tion. " T oday women are fi ghting for a fund amental transforma tion of
