Why do women love men and not their mothers? / Marie-Christine Hamon ; translated by Susan Fairfield.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hamon, Marie-Christine.

Standardized Title:

Pourquoi les femmes aiment-elles les hommes? English

Language:

English

French

Subjects (All):

Femininity--History--20th century.

Femininity.

Freud, Sigmund, 1856-1939.

Freud, Sigmund.

Mothers and daughters--History--20th century.

Mothers and daughters.

Women--Psychology--History--20th century.

Women.

Women and psychoanalysis--History.

Women and psychoanalysis.

History.

Women--Psychology.

Physical Description:

xii, 251 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Other Press, [2000]

Summary:

For a long time Freud boasted that he knew what women wanted. He gave it a name: penis envy. However, in 1923, he admitted that he had been wrong. Here, French psychoanalyst Marie-Christine Hamon offers a brilliant exegesis of the dialogue between Freud and his female colleagues, as they struggled to understand how the little girl refuses or agrees to become a woman. Unearthing the details of an extraordinary debate, which propelled Freud through several dialectical reversals, Hamon shows us that in the beginning it is not penis envy, but love for the mother, that girls and boys alike must undo in the Oedipal struggle. In this major contribution to the history of psychoanalysis and to the understanding of female development, a dynamic evolution of work on these controversial issues emerges from the shadows.The best book on female sexuality I have ever read, and Hamons treatment of the issues is unsurpassed. . . . This highly readable book not only gives many new insights . . . but also puts Freud's contribution into a new light, demolishing the myth of a solitary thinker surrounded by disciples. A chapter of the history of psychoanalysis is now rewritten.Russell Grigg, co-editor of Female Sexuality: The Early Psychoanalytic Controversies

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [231]-237) and index.

ISBN:

1892746468

OCLC:

44420576