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PARTISAN REVIEW
omnipo tent mother whom one can become independen t of and com–
pete with onl y by possess ing an organ tha t she lacks. But the no ti on
that the devalua ti on of woman by bo th sexes ori g ina tes exclusively in
infantil e anxi ety and feelings of ha tred and envy o f the omnipo tent
mother seems
to
me rather myopic. Although many.of Chasseguet–
Smirgel's o bserva tion s are plausibl e, like Melani e Kl ein she ignores
exi sting social influences: bo th of these observers trace a ll la ter psycho–
logical developments back to the earl y mo ther-child dyad (whi ch is
continued in the rela tion ship with the fa ther ), with out considering
tha t the child's upbringing, even in its very ea rliest stages, is stamped
by contempora ry social prejudices.
It
is certa inl y impo rtant to take
infantil e factors into considera ti on in a ttempting
to
comprehend adult
behavior. But if we overl ook the pa rt played in a child 's upbringing by
contemporary socia l values, we run the ri sk of describing the parent–
child relation ship as if it took pl ace in a kind o f closed room, without
connection with the multifari ous influences o f the environment. But it
is precisely thi s meeting between the influences of infantil e fantasies
and experi ences and economi c and sociocu ltura l conditions tha t is
responsibl e for the behavior o f bo th sexes in society.
If
psychoan alysis
regards the child 's earli es t relation ship to its mo ther as the sole cause of
all further development or, like Freud , traces the development of
female cha racter all but exclusively
to
the psychi c consequences of the
ana tomi cal difference between th e sexes, then woman 's struggle for
libera ti on from
social
p ress ures appea rs irrelevant, and her hope for
change in her general situa ti on is unfounded. Similarl y, tracing
contempt for women exclusively
to
a defense-reacti on aga inst the
unconsciou s envy of th e omnipotent mo ther may also lead
to
res igna–
ti on in the face of larger sociocultural tendencies
to
deva lue women .
T heori es o f thi s kind, whi ch focus too exclusive ly on very earl y child–
mother rela tionships, may help us to unders tand wh y some femini sts
a re so hostil e to p sychoanalysis. On the o ther hand , psych oanalysis
teaches us
to
di stingui sh between the conscio us and the unconscious,
the real and unrea l causes of the envy of man , and psychoanalytic
insights can therefore help us to determine when our experi ences of
oppression a re subj ecti ve and when they a re o bj ective.
The controversy over the no tion of masochi sm as a typicall y and
ineluctabl y female a ttribute is a lso worth con sidering in the present
context. Freud thought tha t upbrin ging, the a ttitude of society, and the
psychic consequences of her bio logical-ana tomi ca l fa te left woman no
alternative but to turn her aggress ions aga inst herself. Indeed masoch–
ism was rega rded as the preconditi on for her being able to enj oy sexual
