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The debate between [[psychoanalysis]] and [[feminism]] has been long and acrimonious.
Although it begins with the discussions of the so-called [[phallic stage]] of [[development]] that took [[place ]] in the 1920s and 1930s, it took on a new importance in the 1970s as questions of [[gender]] and its reproduction came to the fore.
In ''[[The Feminine Mystique]]'', [[Friedan]] argued that [[psychoanalysis]] was one of the major sources of the mystique of her title, which persuaded [[women ]] to collude in their own domination by men.[[Beauvoir]], for her part, had already describe psychoanalysis as encouraging or even engineering a [[social ]] conformity that was detrimental to women's interests.
Feminists agreed that [[psychoanalysis]] was part of the [[ideology]] of [[patriarchy]].
However, far from [[being ]] a prescription for patriarchy, psychoanalysis offered a [[theory ]] of patriarchy and gender that could contribute to the liberation of women.
[[Freud]] states that 'anatomy is destiny' and explains the little [[girl]]'s '[[sense ]] of [[inferiority]]' in [[terms ]] of the [[narcissism}narcissistic]] wound inflicted by her realization that she does not have a [[penis]].Elsewhere [[Freud]] argues that, whilst [[psychoanalysis]] cannot describe 'what a [[woman ]] is,' it can helpt to elucidate 'how she comes into being, how a woman develops out of a child with a bisexual disposition.'Despite this [[claim]], Freud's writings are [[full ]] of metaphors of darkness and obscurity that [[help ]] to turn [[femininity]] into a '[[dark continent]] which is almost [[impossible ]] to [[understand]].
The [[Freudian ]] [[notion ]] of [[penis envy]] was the central issue in the early debates over the [[phallic phase]], or that [[stage ]] in [[psychosexual development]] in which [[children ]] of both [[gender]]s believe in the [[existence ]] ofonly one [[genital ]] [[organ]].
Feminists found this emphasis on [[penis envy]] which defined women as incomplete males very offensive.
The girl's realization that she does not have a [[penis]] leads her to conclude that she once had one but has been [[castrated]], and she then embarks on the long [[process ]] of feminization which will lead her to transform her [[wish]] for the [[penis]] into a [[wish]] for a [[child]].
The [[psychoanalysis]] that so offended many feminists was in fact vulgarized or revisionist version of Freud.
[[Lacan]]'s '[[return to Freud]]' offered a solution.
[[Lacan]]'s main contributions to the debate are the [[concepts ]] of the [[symbolic]], the [[phallus]] and the [[name-of-the-father]], which do move the [[discussion ]] away from the [[biologism]] of [[Freud]]'s remarks [[about ]] anatomy and destiny.
They also create new problems.
It is difficult to find precedents for the use of 'phallus'' rather than 'penis' in [[Freud]], adn the link that is established by [[Lacan]] between the [[phallus]] and access to the [[symbolic]] is vulnerable to [[Derrida]]'s accusation of [[phallogocentrism]].
The importance acribed to the [[name-of-the-father]], for its part, can be seen as rearguard [[action ]] against the greater emphasis that is placed on mothering by [[Klein]], [[Winnicott]] and [[others]].Whilst elements of [[Lacanian psychoanalysis]] have become an essential part of certain forms of feminism, critics such as [[Irigaray]] argue that both its basic [[epistemology ]] and its practices are inherently masculinist.
[[Category:Sexuality]]
