M. MITSCHERLICH-NIELSEN
63
the clash between male and female prejudices seems unavoidable. For
many feminists Freud is the number one enemy; of all the factors that
have contributed to maintaining a male-oriented social order, one of
the most decisive, in their view, is Freud's theory regarding the
psychosexual development of woman. This attitude in psychoanalysis
is most prevalent in English-speaking countries, above all in the
United States, where psychoanalysis succeeded in establishing itself
and accommodating itself to the existing social systems. By contrast, in
Germany psychoanalysis was expelled by Hitler, who managed to
suppress its critical truth as "Jewish erosion of ethical values."
Consequently, psychoanalysis had great difficulty in establishing itself
in Germany after the war. Even up to the present it has only been able
to gain a limited measure of social recognition.
In
the beginning the
"New Left" took a special interest in it as a result of the teachings of
Marcuse, but in the course of time people who embrace political
positions of this sort have increasingly revealed an anti-psychoanalytic
attitude, according to the extent of their loyalty to Marxist-Leninist
dogma. This does not, of course, stop many supporters of the so-called
"New Left" from receiving psychotherapeutic treatment. As for Ger–
·man feminists, they tend to be ambivalent in their view of psychoanaly–
sis, many sharing their English-speaking sisters' attitude, though in a
less committed way.
As we know , the psychoanalytic concept of penis envy has been
the focus of feminist attack. Freud believed that he had observed that
women were more envious than men; he traced this
to
the female
anatomy, which he supposed that women regarded as inferior. Femin–
ists consider this theory of Freud's the incarnation of a male prejudice
that has contributed to the maintenance of patriarchal social condi–
tions. They stress that they do not envy the man's penis but his great
social and professional freedom, which is a reality created by men and
not the expression of a naturally superior anatomy.
This line of argument confuses the unconscious and conscious
consequences of century-old social arrangements and psycho–
biological developments. For this reason the psychoanalytic concept of
penis envy has been largely misunderstood. Many feminists argue on a
purely intellectual level and are not prepared to recognize the existence
and significance of unconscious factors .
In
a recently published book,
Psychoanalysis and Feminism,
Juliet Mitchell has examined the
statements of leading feminists on psychoanalysis, revealing numerous
misunderstandings that arise partly out of ignorance, but are primarily
traceable to a particular set of assumptions. Admittedly, certain psy-
